> How do we determine how much/little energy usage is acceptable though?
Well, a purely electronic financial instrument that pretty much by definition cannot produce anything, and provides little but an arena for speculation, would seem to me to be a bad thing to introduce to a world that's trying to reduce energy use.
If you want to get into "well people clearly value it", the evidence being the money they pump in, well then any energy expenditure is justified if it is profitable, and this conversation is pointless.
> How much energy has and is being expended during the mining of all the gold
This is just whataboutery. Gold can be a problem as well.
Well, a purely electronic financial instrument that pretty much by definition cannot produce anything, and provides little but an arena for speculation, would seem to me to be a bad thing to introduce to a world that's trying to reduce energy use.
If you want to get into "well people clearly value it", the evidence being the money they pump in, well then any energy expenditure is justified if it is profitable, and this conversation is pointless.
> How much energy has and is being expended during the mining of all the gold
This is just whataboutery. Gold can be a problem as well.