> PoW systems are the only ones where "higher value transactions" need security proportional to their size.
Every other currency is either backed by men with guns and transactions are reversible (fiat) or you have to spend a roughly proportional amount of resources securing it (e.g. gold). I didn't look at the data, but judging by US military spending I'd guess that the strongest economies also have to spend the most to keep their system safe.
You can still argue that the assumption of pseudonymous actors in bitcoin makes the proportion factor larger (=system less efficient) than for systems that can use identities and attribution and I'd agree with that. But that's only because it can operate with less assumptions (no identities), which I see as a feature.
> Every other currency is either backed by men with guns?
So what? Men with guns are also the foundation of property rights, law and order, and national sovereignty; they are not an extra cost of fiat currency, they underpin the government's ability to maintain order and structure within society. I shouldn't have to explicitly point this out.
> transactions are reversible (fiat)
Cash payments are not reversible. Reversible payments are also a feature that nearly everyone wants.
> spend a roughly proportional amount of resources securing it (e.g. gold).
Gold is not a currency.
> that's only because it can operate with less assumptions (no identities), which I see as a feature
Untrue. A centralized anonymous payment system is technically possible, the limitations are strictly legal.
> PoW systems are the only ones where "higher value transactions" need security proportional to their size.
Every other currency is either backed by men with guns and transactions are reversible (fiat) or you have to spend a roughly proportional amount of resources securing it (e.g. gold). I didn't look at the data, but judging by US military spending I'd guess that the strongest economies also have to spend the most to keep their system safe.
You can still argue that the assumption of pseudonymous actors in bitcoin makes the proportion factor larger (=system less efficient) than for systems that can use identities and attribution and I'd agree with that. But that's only because it can operate with less assumptions (no identities), which I see as a feature.