[miracle2k]

Yes, the gas fees support the miners directly. Of course, the miners are also financed via the block rewards; the cause-effect relationship is much more spurious there; individual transactors can only be considered responsible for that part of the energy output in so far as their actions cause an increase in the price of ETH, for example by causing ETH to be desirable.

Arguably, a sell-transaction of ETH could be energy-positive in that it causes downward-pressure on the ETH price.

This also means that buying ETH on an exchange can be considered as contributing to the energy consumption of the network.

The fees the miners earn are currently a small part of their revenue:

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/data/on-chain-metrics/ethereu...

[jallen_dot_dev]

> Arguably, a sell-transaction of ETH could be energy-positive in that it causes downward-pressure on the ETH price.

Interesting thought, but mining profit margins are rather thick right now in most parts of the world (because the supply of miners is a little inelastic--mining equipment doesn't just poof into existence as the price rises). So I don't think anyone is turning miners on or off in response to small movements in the price right now.

Also, if you bought and then sold that would seem like a wash. Or worse, since you temporarily raised the price and therefor incentivized mining for that time.