Quote from: Samarkand on February 17, 2018, 10:09:39 AM

I´m tired of hearing the argument "but Bitcoin wastes more energy than
a whole country..." all over the mainstream media.

Here are a few reasons why the energy that is consumed by Bitcoin mining is not wasted:
1. The energy that is consumed by Bitcoin mining is the foundation of the security of the network
2. Proof-of-work is superior to other consensus algorithms like Proof-of-Stake and offers less attack vectors
3. Fiat currencies are supposedly backed by the power of the state... meanwhile the US military consumes more energy than Bitcoin mining per year
(this is a comparison of the military of a single country compared to a truly global currency)
4. No one is talking about the enormous costs of transporting fiat money, securing it and printing it in the first place
5. The mining of other commodities is extremely energy-intensive as well

If you take all these factors into account, Bitcoin may actually be less energy-intensive than traditional
fiat currencies. Besides, many mining companies have set up their operations in countries with an abundance
of renewable energies like Canada or Iceland. The days where Bitcoin was solely mined in rural Mongolia and China
may finally be behind us.

1. Yes. But that doesn't mean it's not a waste. You could change the foundation to something non-wasteful. PoW is quite literally a waste of energy by design. This energy is not going towards producing anything. You waste more energy - you earn more rewards.

2. Is it? Have you considered centralisation as a safety factor (be it mining pool or geographical centralisation)? Are you not aware that there was a time when ghash.io pool briefly exceeded 50% of total hashrate, making mining centralised for a moment. In free market conditions PoW is inherently trending towards centralisation of mining and/or manufacturing mining hardware. No electricity cost will be the same in every country, one hardware will be more efficient than others (see bitmain), one mining farm will be more efficient than competition etc.

3-5. Not an arguments. What you're saying is "X is not a waste of energy because Y is using a lot of energy". I'm not fat because some other guy is also fat/fatter. You get the gist.

You mentioned Iceland's renewable energy. Any thoughts on Iceland's proposal to tax bitcoin mining, because they're concern it can drain too much electricity? https://www.coindesk.com/icelandic-lawmaker-floats-bitcoin-mining-tax/

This thread is also worth reading, it explains how rising Bitcoin price could fuck up energy supply on a global level: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2847680.0