I have read moderately on POW and read about the huge amount of energy required to earn each BTC. There are other ways to distribute new coins and I find it a bit concerning as to how few are suggested. The time of 120 years to mine the remaining 2.4 million Bitcoins is a bit absurd. Here is just one possible method.
Lets say 10 years for the remainder. At 144 blocks per day that is 6,307,200 blocks in 10 years. Divide 2.4 million BTC by that many blocks to get about 0.38 BTC per block.
Create and maintain a list of all the bitcoin nodes that have been active for some period of time, maybe a year or some other time period. Node owners must have a certain amount of time invested before becoming eligible for payments.
As each block is completed, select one node, maybe at random, and the owner of the node gets 0.38 BTC. Take that node off the list to received block rewards for some period of time to allow for sharing the wealth.
After the last BTC has been distributed, profits are derived from the work needed to certify each block. Each of the, for example, first 32 nodes that are involved in the original certification of a block gets some percentage of the fees for that block. Maybe provide a sliding scale based upon the time the node has been active. Those on online for longer periods get a bit more. When a node receives a transaction fee, maybe take it off the distribution list for some period of time, share the wealth.
This is just a suggestion and can certainly be refined for fairness. Any thoughts?