Building in remote areas destroys the environment during the build and changes it while it’s in use.

Plenty of solar in the desert kills off the local fauna and diverts rainstorm water in such a way that it causes problems.

It creates demand for energy, but it doesn't actually produce anything. It's just proof of work math problems.

I don't think it's a net positive by itself. Maybe if you combine it with something else

I know Iceland’s geothermal is a hot spot for mining crypto-currency because it costs absolutely next to nothing. When you’re running massive mining centers off of the earth’s burps there is opportunity to turn a massive profit.

Now, do I think it’s incentivizing a large shift in the production of energy? I’m not sure. Are crypto-bros reinvesting their earnings into renewables research and infrastructure? Or are they buying gas guzzling sports cars and jet setting to all the best parties?

At this point in time, a lot of the “green crypto” feels more like greenwashing than actual ethical development. But who knows, maybe someday that will change?

Alright, I'll skip right past the energy consumption issue of crypto and AI and the like..

Riddle me this...

If the future is supposed to be an entirely digital world, where only adults can have accounts (18 or 21 years old or whatever), then 5 year olds won't even have the right to go buy a simple candy bar, and high school students won't have any financial experience to even get started in life after they graduate.

So what future is there in crypto?

https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/

Personal opinion, crypto is nothing but scammer garbage.

#TheyDidntDoTheMath

Energy is nof only used to "create" value, but also to hold it. Even when you reach the limit of 21 something milion bitcoins, every transaction will require a huge amount of energy, and the amount it requires will go up.

The energy used by mining Bitcoin is the energy required to hold back human corruption and fraud. In other words, it's so costly because humanity is so shit. Fiat, by comparison, is cheap, but it is also inadequate at holding people back from corrupting their money.

It also provides the ability for the grid to instantly shed load effectively bringing new capacity online instantly. It effectively operates as a battery making unreliable renewables more viable on the grid.