You're right that's there's nothing inherently bad about energy consumption.
I would gladly use 7.7 gigawatts and more if it meant developing a cure for cancer, or exploring Mars, or anything useful really.
The crux of the issue is that Bitcoin is mostly used as a speculative asset, i.e. something with little actual usefulness except for traders basically.
Using 0.5% of the world's total energy consumption for this is an issue, imho.
I would gladly use 7.7 gigawatts and more if it meant developing a cure for cancer, or exploring Mars, or anything useful really.
The crux of the issue is that Bitcoin is mostly used as a speculative asset, i.e. something with little actual usefulness except for traders basically.
Using 0.5% of the world's total energy consumption for this is an issue, imho.