If someone figures out a way to do it, then sure. Mining ensures that no one in the system is able to get a new monetary unit below the market price as well as making tampering with past transactions uneconomical. Ultimately it's a very elegant solution to what was a long-standing problem.
The system pays for itself via transaction fees, which are used to "lock" the transaction history in a completely decentralised way.
The system pays for itself via transaction fees, which are used to "lock" the transaction history in a completely decentralised way.