> the cost of sustaining Bitcoin's energy burn look like the cheap option
No, this needs to have the plug pulled on it if we're to keep global warming to 2C.
Bitcoin accounts for <0.1% of global CO2e and has one of the highest shares of renewables in any industry (since it competes globally for the cheapest energy).
It incentivises renewables (by being a location agnostic buyer of first and last resort which buys all excess energy 24/7), reduces CO2e (by making it profitable to combust CH4 instead of venting it), stabilises energy grids (by providing flexible demand response, i.e. can be turned on and off at moment's notice), provides banking services for the global unbanked and financially discriminated, shields from gambling bankers and inflation of the money supply, ...
In comparison to all these use cases and benefits, mere "luxury" energy uses such as air-conditioning, tumble drying, video games, porn, ... all consume more energy and produce more CO2e (e.g. A/C ~100x more). Yet nobody calls to have the plug pulled on them.
Regulate the production of energy, not the consumption.
Computers, data centers and networks consume about 10% of all the world energy. [1] 4 percent of websites are estimated to be porn [2] a single gaming computer costs about up to 1400 kWh annually. [3]
So the porn websites are about 3X bitcoin and BTC represents around 8.7m gaming computers.
[0]https://www.moneysupermarket.com/gas-and-electricity/feature...
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IT_energy_management#:~:text=S....
[2]https://www.statista.com/chart/16959/share-of-the-internet-t...
[3]https://computerinfobits.com/how-much-energy-do-gaming-compu....
Sure thing buddy. One of the ways the "little guy" can push back against big banks and big government needs to have its plug pulled because of some imaginary 2 degrees panic. What the hell happened to "Hacker" in "Hacker News", this place is a cesspool of the mainstream rhetoric. Note: I have $0 invested in crypto, but I don't deny its usefulness in "keeping the bastards honest".
What bastards has crypto ever kept honest?
There is also another aspect to banks which is to provide ability to exchange money. That part of banking doesn't generate a lot of revenue compared to loans so it receives a lot less attention.
Even with all of the inefficiencies of modern banking, by comparison cryptocurrency is like lighting oil wells on fire.