| > If a proof-of-work cryptocurrency holds its price, its energy usage can only go up. The cost of proof-of-work is paid by the network participants. When you transact on Bitcoin or Ethereum, you pay massive fees to proof of work miners that significantly limits the number of things you can do productively. Dozens of interesting use cases on Ethereum are made completely non-viable by fees that sometimes break $100 per transaction. Proof of work cryptocurrencies however exist in a competitive environment with other cryptocurrencies. If a new cryptocurrency launches that can provide the same utility and security guarantees at a lower cost (either through less work, or through some other means) you will have a natural migration of users from the more expensive cryptocurrency to the cheaper cryptocurrency. At equilibrium (which we may not be at, given all the hype currently), a proof of work cryptocurrency is only sustainable if its cost structure is competitive. There is an active incentive applied to the entire space to invent more efficient means to transact in a decentralized way, so that participants don't have to pay such high transaction fees and inflation costs to update a decentralized ledger. > Cryptocurrencies are decentralized by design, so while the US for example can stop the use or import of inefficient stadium lighting technologies, there is no way to apply a carbon tax or stop the "import" of cryptocurrency mined through "dirty" means. This approximately applies to all manufacturing though. What percentage of US goods are manufactured in regions that have limited regulation regarding the environment? Most of them, because if you don't use those regions, you are going to have trouble competing in the marketplace. It IS a problem for Bitcoin, but it's also a problem for all global production in general. |
This seems to be purely theoretical.
In the real world, most people stick with the recognised names regardless.