> ASICs are roughly 100x more power-efficient at essentially any crypto mining algorithm
That's half of the problem.
The other half is that cryptocurrencies rely, in a structural way, on their generation to be difficult, so when enough ASICs get deployed, the currency ups its "difficulty factor", multiplying the amount of power you have to burn for the same reward.
Really, if I were a supervillain who wanted to accelerate energy crisis and climate change by exploiting human greed, cryptocurrencies is the scheme I would come up with.
That's half of the problem.
The other half is that cryptocurrencies rely, in a structural way, on their generation to be difficult, so when enough ASICs get deployed, the currency ups its "difficulty factor", multiplying the amount of power you have to burn for the same reward.
Really, if I were a supervillain who wanted to accelerate energy crisis and climate change by exploiting human greed, cryptocurrencies is the scheme I would come up with.