> The "Bitcoin energy problem" has always been a short term issue, as it exposes the problem of under-priced fossil fuel that do not yet capture externalities (fossil fuels are subsidized by governments, and most countries do not implement a carbon tax).
Bitcoin _fundamentally_ is difficult to mine because it consumes available resources at a rate that takes time. If it becomes easier to mine, they'll just make the problem harder. It will _always_ find some resource limitation that slows mining.
If energy is no longer an issue, then one can imagine physical hardware will become the next resource limitation. It just pushes the carbon problem from electric generation to manufacturing.
> This isn't as big of a problem in the long run because renewable energy from solar, wind, geothermal, are now the cheapest forms of energy, and will probably get even cheaper.
You assume. Soon we will hit against other issues though. Even if electricity generation costs nothing, you still need to implement infrastructure to move it around. In reality this means massive power stations, large cabling that travels long distances, etc.
This is not something that gets solved in the short term, it's one of the (many) problems that will slow down the push for EVs too.
> Combine this with improvements in batteries and other complimentary technologies (solar roofs) and the future of self sustaining, affordable renewable clean energy is very promising. It does not make sense to use fossil fuels for mining in this future when fossil fuel gets priced correctly.
Don't swallow Elon Musk's promises, batteries have not really changed all that much. It's difficult to improve on batteries much further than we already have - hydrogen stores may still be the way forwards (and we may regret abandoning them). Solar roofs are better than solar roads, but fixed-position solar panels that do not track the sun are inefficient compared to those that do.
Bare in mind also that most renewable energy is dependant on seasons and/or weather conditions. No sun, no solar power. No wind, no turbine power. No gas, no gas power. You only need to checkout the most recent global energy shortage to see this possibility is very real. (Germany will soon regret turning off their nuclear power stations.)
Fossil fuels if anything are currently massively overpriced (at retail value). Checkout how much tax your government currently put on them - it's hardly subsidized. Bare in mind also that the oil supply is artificially controlled, it's very heavily tied into politics.