Wasteful compared to which other network that manages money and protects property rights? Most popular place to mine bitcoin is the north-west of China where there are unused hydroplants
I don’t fully understand your argument. Are you saying that a full crypto inplementation would entirely rid the World of the need for military, police, lawyers etc. or what?
No but it removes the need to delegate trust to managing the ledger to a bank. A bank which is required to be highly regulated, audited and with great physical security to earn that trust