Indeed! Though BTC uses more electricity, atleast you gain profit from it. Its like your investing a business and electricity is one of your kind of capital . Anyways businesses do electricity so I think theres no difference yet BTC is more advantage.
it uses electricity but it also gains something in return, unlike watching TV.
Good point. There's so much electricity being wasted around the world and people are complaining about bitcoin mining.
Your gaming PC with dual GPUs uses almost as much as a decent miner. Is gaming a productive activity? I'd argue that it's much less productive than supporting a crypto network.
What about things left in standby mode? They are the biggest unproductive energy consumers in the world. Nobody cares about that, but suddenly mining is such a big deal.
So if an item left on standby uses 1 watt an hour (i.e. it is brand new and adheres to the new 1 watt legislation), then it uses 1kWh for every 1000 hours it is on. There are 8760 hours in a year, so it will use 8.76kWh in a year. Currently 1kWh from one of the big 6-energy company costs 14 pence, so over a year that will cost £1.23 to do nothing!
TV (10 YEARS OLD)
An old TV uses 12 watts an hour, so it uses 1kWh for every 83 hours it is on (in standby). There are 8760 hours in a year, so it will use 106kWh in a year, which at todays prices equates to £15, again to do nothing.