I agree with you in principle. Wasting energy like what this and hashcash do is unfortunate but that's what happens when you have an irrational hate towards a technology rather than how it is used.
That said, modeling it after a general cryptocurrency is probably a bad idea since it rising prices may prevent legitimate clients from being able to connect to onion services due to the challenge being too expensive (either in terms of computation or accusation). I think a much practical approach is to have each visitor contribute to a partial solution that can then be combined to derive funds (much like how mining pools work). That way, clients will be completely isolated from cryptocurrency and sites can actually benefit from the work rather than just throwing it away. It's a win-win situation.
I hope the next generation learns from our senseless technology-burnings.
That said, modeling it after a general cryptocurrency is probably a bad idea since it rising prices may prevent legitimate clients from being able to connect to onion services due to the challenge being too expensive (either in terms of computation or accusation). I think a much practical approach is to have each visitor contribute to a partial solution that can then be combined to derive funds (much like how mining pools work). That way, clients will be completely isolated from cryptocurrency and sites can actually benefit from the work rather than just throwing it away. It's a win-win situation.
I hope the next generation learns from our senseless technology-burnings.