[mondoveneziano]

It can spike up when new miners join the game, possibly in remote locations of the world with defunct governments that decide that mining Bitcoin for a select few is a more "important" use of their non-clean energy source. The network will react, miners in other parts of the world where regulations do not allow the same may scale their operation down, but there was a spike, and much more importantly you now incentivized burning resources by whatever means available where regulations do not stand in the way.

[atweiden]

That’s not what you said, though. You said, quote:

> If a proof-of-work cryptocurrency holds its price, its energy usage can only go up

“Energy usage can only go up”

Only go up? When price is flat? I’m really sorry, but it seems you’re just grasping at straws, here.