Why not ban lotteries too? And casinos? Or have some committee legislate all activities a human can engage in? Where do you draw the line? Let the government solve how to produce energy and let it keep their fingers out of our personal lives.
The issue here is that at the very bottom you end up with really nasty vicious poverty circles... and now that I think of it, we don't know in advance what kind of combination of minimum low power and low time fraction of guaranteed supply is the best, and how you combine market discovery for that with regulation...
Of course, I know that many of you... as lomg as it is not your own business everything is ok.
It would [let us assume for the sake of argument] be better for society if proof of work systems did not exist. But if we ban it it will just happen anyway.
It would be better for society if murder did not exist but even though we banned it, murder just happens anyway.
Banning this type of activity has historically proven difficult, it's basically the lesson we keep re-learning with the prohibition, the war on drugs and so forth.
Why?
Debt is also something foreign intelligence looks for when attempting to recruit spies.
Crypto speculation. Like all speculation is ultimately gambling, which people can get addicted to.
But miners just pay their energy bills like any other citizen. Who are you to tell them what activity should they perform with the energy they purchase?
Sounds like this is a good reason for them to pay lower rates per kwh.
With the current technology it is just impossible.
Your terms are acceptable.