[happosai]

If the problem is co2 emissions, banning is not really the solution. The solution is co2 cap-and-trade, with a yearly dropping cap. We have it in EU, and it's very effective at dropping the co2 emissions of electricity production and industry. What is needed is carbon tariffs, or carbon club:

https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.15000001

To beat the rest of the countries into submission. If all co2 emissions are under same cap-and-trade emissions system, from climate pov it doesn't matter that bitcoin is energy inefficient. The bitcoin miners will simply have to buy their emissions rights or use clean energy. Even if bitcoin energy use would skyrocket, the co2 emissions would continue to drop at the same rate as the co2 cap drops...

The root of the problem goes deeper - why haven't developed nations such as USA and Australia have co2 cap and trade? I'd blame fox news and its ilk, which have figured out which buttons to press on people to make them dumb. Despite the immense damage to environment and society they have created, democratic societies have not figured out how to fix that problem. Come on, we have had decades of time to monitor and learn of Murdoch et atll, and the problem has only got worse...