[edvinbesic]

The primary reason why a proof of work implementation for something like bitcoin has a huge environmental impact is because it is a winner take all system. You have thousands of machines trying to do the same thing but only one will get there first and claim all the reward, making all that other work that was done a waste of resources.

At some point 1:N becomes prohibitively expensive for the sender, but that doesn't mean that there is wasted work.

edit: To clarify, not really promoting the idea per say, just commenting on the proof of work statement.