Could say that about social media or video games.
It's not wasted any more than it is wasted when you play a game or watch a youtube video or TV. It's just a use of energy which you are trying to make as somehow bad. It's just a cultural preference.
But if someone worked out a way to generate BitCoin for free without any energy input, that would destroy BitCoin, because it depends on proof of work, where work is defined as consuming energy.
But what it brings (decentralization) is well worth all the negative sides anyway.
No, it's not. You can't mine inefficiently and remain profitable. There's a market after all.
This is such a ridiculous comment. I have to wonder why we have such gleeful wilful ignorance whenever the topic of Bitcoin or crypto comes up.
Even worse, it puts a floor on the price of energy, which disincentives everyone else from seeking more efficient solutions to power production, because all that efficiency will be wasted by proof-of-work anyway. We as a species will never have free energy, and this is the reason.
And yes, before you answer, that applies to any hobby you can think of. You won't be astute by pointing out that e.g., car enthusiasts are similarly wasteful.