[deprave]

So I can pay my utility company $100 a month for energy I consume, or pay $40000 for a bitcoin representing energy someone else consumed? Got it.

[bitxbitxbitcoin]

Yes. How many ways do you have to reliably monetize a portion of that $100 that goes to the utility company, though? At its core, proof of work (not Bitcoin's anymore because of ASICs), allows that.

[lupire]

I dont need to monetize it, I can keep the $100 and not buy the energy. And it's not "reliable" if I get rug pulled (extemely common) or someone else has a more effcient mining setup (extremely common).

Maybe if I'm stuck on inefficient resistive heatong in winter, mining makes sense.

[Scoundreller]

That’s how much it would take to produce another one. Most cost a much smaller fraction of that.