[arcticbull]

No, it doesn't. Every TWh wasted on proof of work delays decarbonizing the rest of the economy. There's no benefit to anyone to build a whole ton of solar and wind capacity then literally wasting it on a sudoku puzzle of global scale. That doesn't help. If anything it hurts because it generates e-waste. 27 thousand tons of e-waste per year. [1] E-waste without a disposal strategy, that gets buried or burned or dumped on poor countries.

97% of all bitcoin miners will never mine a block in their entire useful lives. They will be manufactured, plugged in, they'll sit there, desperately guessing, never guess right, and be thrown out.

[1] https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption