> Except this new-old state is built on a framework of exponential energy waste that powers cryptocurrencies.
Few in the cryptocurrency community, except the so-called "Bitcoin maximalists", believe Proof of Work will survive as the dominant consensus algorithm.
What's more likely to be widely adopted is a Proof of Stake [1], or Proof of Space [2] system.
I keep hearing that, and yet it doesn't happen. Did anyone ever actually demonstrate that PoS (either one) can give the same network safety guarantees as PoW.
Check the "Simulation" part of the Snow White paper I linked above for instance[1]. You're right to ask that, because indeed most Proof of Stake algorithms either have weaker[2] or slower[1] safety guarantees.