[scintill76]

> The Bitcoin "solution" to this problem is, in essence, for each node on the network to provably waste energy in an exceedingly flagrant way, in hopes that the costs of taking over the network are too high for any individual bad actor

This is like saying, "The traditional banking 'solution' is to have a bunch of lawyers and government agencies waste time, paper, and ink drafting up and verifying documents, in hopes that the costs of taking over the system are too high for any individual bad actor." Obviously it's not perfect, but neither is any other financial system. They both serve a purpose: addressing problems that haven't been solved any other way, so it's not a waste.

I'm not even as rabid of a Bitcoin fan as some others, but it's just silly to read "OMG, mining costs energy!" when so does any other activity. At least put out some numbers to show how much more wasteful mining is than other systems, in your opinion. And who appointed you to decide which uses of energy are dumb/immoral/wasteful? Why do you care if miners are willing to buy electricity and electric companies are willing to sell it?