Does anyone think mining was created to boost or save the tech industry in terms of hard goods? I have followed all of this for sometime including prices of video cards and such, 2015 was to be projected as the worst year for computer/part sales. It would seem alot more plausable to have coins that can not be mined such as IOTA where as i understand it, computers are bouncing small verification between 3 algos that tangle to make a whole instead of a DAG that never stops growing?
Proof of work might have resulted in increased demand for tech goods, especially chips, but it would be far fetched to say that it was created to save the tech industry. If we do move away from Proof of Work, I think the primary reason would be the huge consumption of electricity, rather than anything else.