That’s the funny thing about this genre of arguments (Bitcoin improves GPU tech; Bitcoin subsidizes clean energy) — even if true, the gains will only be realized if there’s a crypto price crash, since otherwise mining absorbs the gains that it is responsible for by definition.
Similarly, one can point out all the advances that the Apollo program brought that are unrelated to space travel. COVID brought in lots of scientific insights that will bear fruit regardless of whether we have to deal with any other coronaviruses in the future.
The broken window fallacy does not consider the benefits from improvements of technology that may result from destruction. Suppose that smashing a bunch of windows would lead to permanent improvements in glassmaking efficiency. In that case, the benefits in the long run would far outweigh the short term costs. Of course, that's not a given with any form of destruction, but I am arguing that it is the case with cryptocurrency.
Like I said, not all destruction is destined to create excess value, but some destruction is, and I am arguing that this is the case here specifically. A counterfactual where this money would've been spent on something even more beneficial doesn't really matter. It wasn't spent that way and it could also have been spent in numerous other ways that are even less beneficial.
I think the opposite is true. Now that we have cheap GPU accelerators, the machine learning revolution is taking place. But where does that cheap GPU accelerator come from? Clearly, the more frivolous "gaming demand" was paving the way for machine learning, not the other way around. It's similar for mining.
> All the crypto boom did is create shortages and raise prices.
Rising prices are a signal to the market that production needs to be increased, which lowers prices in the long term. Shortages are short term.