The high power consumption used by a heavy gamer (CPU + GPU) is easily indistinguishable and probably higher than a plain old individual miner since you would have CPU + GPU + Peripherals running.
And since there are 1000+ X more gamers than miners, the Bitcoin Inquisitors will have a hard time finding the needle in that haystack by simply examining your electricity bills.
Also, the noise of the fans required to cool such an electric load will get you thrown out of any apartment complex fast, not even considering that this heat is dissipated into your living room which would lead to somewhat uncomfortable room temperatures of over 30°C even in the coldest of winters.
What you're probably thinking about is GPU-based mining, but that has nothing to do with Bitocin.
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1262471/per-capita-elect...
What do you base your 2-3 kWh number on? Because there's literally no way that's true. A fridge alone consumes close to 200 kWh.
The 1 million crypto miners on the other hand are devoting at least 1 CPU/GPU to mining 24/7.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/420621/number-of-pc-game...
My understanding is that (even top-tier) consumer-grade hardware and consumer electricity prices are not going to be enough to turn a profit, at least in current hashing conditions.
If a country detects 10,000 people running high GPU loads (not sure how they could tell the difference between GPU and, say, a space heater) then it probably would just be gamers and not miners.
Its very easy to distinguish a gamer from a miner/weed producer. Gamers, even when addicted, are human beings. Human beings sleep. Which means you are going to see patterns (normally at night) where usage is down. Also, a lot of gaming is mobile, increasingly in cloud, and every Xbox, Playstation, and Nintendo Switch is going to have a specific power profile (non-unique, except TV output) as well as a specific heat dissipation. And the usage of power and heat dissipation is both much lower than both mining and weed producers.
You can bet your ass both the electricity companies and the Dutch authority use big data to aid in their discovery of such criminal enterprises. However, the goal of a weed producer is to generate for a criminal enterprise, knowing they get busted. If they hidden their assets well, they can reap the benefits after the case (even if they bankrupted). And therein, in that cat and mouse game, lies a market for cryptocurrencies, unfortunately if I may add.
Because I am from The Netherlands, and I would like my children being able to visit the provinces of Holland where they were born (I get that nobody from China gives a shit about that though, but just to give ut a personal touch from my PoV). To achieve that, environmental waste must go down. Cryptocurrencies are the single most useless asset in that equation. They don't contribute in any positive way to the environmental issues we face. Its an eccentric if not downright narcissistic financial world, while the environmental clock is ticking.
I therefore agree with a world-wide ban on this MLM driven scam business (another downside). However, banning alone is not enough. It requires moderation by an already overburdened police force. If its banned though, you no longer need to differentiate between cryptocurrency mining and weed producing. And you don't go after Harry the 16 year old gamer or Joe the Norton user who mine a bit on the side. Its the big boys who matter.
No matter how polluting, running around with a sports car will in some way counter most users' personal finance. But if using cars made free money, not only nearly everybody would be doing it, but there would be potentially no limit to "scaling up" the earnings, as long as one could cover the initial investment.
https://www.ign.com/articles/dell-alienware-gaming-pcs-six-s...
However, the miners with 150 GPUs, 500 GPUs, thousands of GPUs are absolutely a problem.
I want to buy a new video card too, but if the market is paying more than they are retailing for, but what can I do? I must compete with the miners.
If 150 cards are used to play fortnite, or 150 cards are used to mine, that is entirely the prerogative of the person that bought the cards. Is the problem that you don't like what someone else is doing with their own property?