Proof-of-work is so obviously, undeniably, mathematically guaranteed to be a crypto dead-end, that I'm gobsmacked we're still having discussions like this.
Proof-of-work requires, by design, that the electricity value expended on mining is proportional to the total market cap of Bitcoin. It's really just simple arbitrage: if the value of Bitcoin goes up, but the electricity cost doesn't, then you have essentially 2 different prices for 1 good, which should attract more miners to spend more money on electricity. And, indeed, this is exactly what has happened.
The problem, of course, is that if it takes an Argentina's worth of electricity to run Bitcoin now, how does the world manage if Bitcoin has a 10 or 100 times greater market cap? Obviously it can't, and world governments would rightly shut it all down before the majority of our electric output went to mining BTC.
There is simply no way around this issue if you're on a proof-of-work system, and given that, it's so easy to see that BTC is guaranteed to fail at some point. It's like we're on a train rushing towards a bridge that's out, and everyone can see the bridge is out, but somehow we've convinced a large number of people that we'll "jump the gap" when we get there.
Proof-of-work requires, by design, that the electricity value expended on mining is proportional to the total market cap of Bitcoin. It's really just simple arbitrage: if the value of Bitcoin goes up, but the electricity cost doesn't, then you have essentially 2 different prices for 1 good, which should attract more miners to spend more money on electricity. And, indeed, this is exactly what has happened.
The problem, of course, is that if it takes an Argentina's worth of electricity to run Bitcoin now, how does the world manage if Bitcoin has a 10 or 100 times greater market cap? Obviously it can't, and world governments would rightly shut it all down before the majority of our electric output went to mining BTC.
There is simply no way around this issue if you're on a proof-of-work system, and given that, it's so easy to see that BTC is guaranteed to fail at some point. It's like we're on a train rushing towards a bridge that's out, and everyone can see the bridge is out, but somehow we've convinced a large number of people that we'll "jump the gap" when we get there.