I don't even think it is that. Governments (meaning: politicians and central bankers) are against PoW simply because they don't understand it. They are reading the same sensationalist headlines about energy consumption that the rest of us see. These people aren't enthusiasts who take the time to actually educate themselves on Bitcoin and mining and PoW. They just read headlines about Bitcoin using X amount of energy and producing X amount of carbon and they don't never get beyond these surface level statistics. They don't understand the reason for the mining, and they don't understand that the people who are writing the articles or reports they are reading don't know anything more about PoW and Bitcoin mining than they themselves do.
PoW simply has an optics problem. If you don't know what you're talking about and you just look at the amount of energy it uses, yes it looks very bad. If you do know what you're talking about then you understand the reason for the energy use and why it is beneficial to society for a number of different reasons. Just like if you had no idea what computers did and how they helped society but all you knew was how much energy they used globally anyone (at least anyone who gives a damn about the environment and the well-being of society) would be outraged. It's just pure ignorance on the topic that causes people, politicians or anyone else, to hate PoW and think Bitcoin should switch to PoS. I mean the very fact that they believe Bitcoin CAN switch to PoS, or the fact that they think if Bitcoin doesn't then just another crypto CAN and SHOULD replace Bitcoin shows that they have zero specific knowledge on the topic of Bitcoin and Crypto.
I very much doubt there are many politicians or even central bankers that understand the difference between PoW and PoS other than one uses a lot of energy and the other doesn't. So I doubt much or any of the opposition to PoW is because governments want Bitcoin to be weaker through PoS. It's just the optics of the energy use that is the problem.
PoW doesn't have an energy problem. It has an optics problem. And because of that optics problem there is so much misinformation that has been spread about PoW, which makes it really easy to think PoW does have an energy problem. The answer to PoW's problem is simply educating the public and politicians about how PoW really works and why the claims that it is wasteful are nonsensical.
PoW simply has an optics problem. If you don't know what you're talking about and you just look at the amount of energy it uses, yes it looks very bad. If you do know what you're talking about then you understand the reason for the energy use and why it is beneficial to society for a number of different reasons. Just like if you had no idea what computers did and how they helped society but all you knew was how much energy they used globally anyone (at least anyone who gives a damn about the environment and the well-being of society) would be outraged. It's just pure ignorance on the topic that causes people, politicians or anyone else, to hate PoW and think Bitcoin should switch to PoS. I mean the very fact that they believe Bitcoin CAN switch to PoS, or the fact that they think if Bitcoin doesn't then just another crypto CAN and SHOULD replace Bitcoin shows that they have zero specific knowledge on the topic of Bitcoin and Crypto.
I very much doubt there are many politicians or even central bankers that understand the difference between PoW and PoS other than one uses a lot of energy and the other doesn't. So I doubt much or any of the opposition to PoW is because governments want Bitcoin to be weaker through PoS. It's just the optics of the energy use that is the problem.
PoW doesn't have an energy problem. It has an optics problem. And because of that optics problem there is so much misinformation that has been spread about PoW, which makes it really easy to think PoW does have an energy problem. The answer to PoW's problem is simply educating the public and politicians about how PoW really works and why the claims that it is wasteful are nonsensical.
PoW mining can be as green as PoS. It's just that governments don't truly understand how it works. Either that, or they're doing it on purpose to keep as many people away from Bitcoin as possible. We all know the government doesn't like Bitcoin because it's decentralized. The vast majority of crypto projects switched to PoS out of fear from the government. Not because they wanted to. This is bad, because PoS effectively makes the Blockchain centralized. In fact, the crypto industry is much more centralized now than what it was a couple of years ago.
It's likely Bitcoin will remain the only PoW coin in existence, while the rest turn themselves to PoS. I'd be suprised if someone forks BTC someday to create a PoS version of it. But that I doubt it will gather significant attention from investors, especially when it will be a "Bitcoin clone" with another consensus algorithm. The future is widely unpredictable so we can only hope for the best. Just my thoughts
