@Erik Hedman
tl;dr it's irreverent.
Here's my reasoning, I've also been very concerned about the energy consumption involved in bitcoin. I've been mining, ironically, fossil flue free Bitcoin since 2011 as our electricity is produced from Hydro power.
I'd like to point out some problems I see with your request. Bitcoin is effectively virtual Money if we agree on that we can move on. Money in order to be money needs to be
fungible while it has the same qualities as a virtual commodity it has no physical characteristics, all bitcoins are equal if bitcoin is to be money.
Were I live you’re looked at like the “enemy” if you forget to bring a reusable bag to the store. One is expected to be environmentally effective to avoid social judgments. I used to commute by bicycle (now bicycle and train) and I've noted the same judgment exists with some cyclists towards car drivers, I'm guilty of judging those who squander fossil flues as less environmental effective individuals even thinking of them as part of the problem.
It's important to note the distinctions between value judgments and facts. Effectively being environmental sustainable is just a state of being, wanting to be environmental sustainable is a value judgment, it's a value based on science and ethics but still a value you have to pay for with real value and not all of us agree too. It’s not an economically superior judgment, in fact it could be considered a class tax if you live in a world fuelled by artificial exponential growth.
Energy has never before in our history been this ubiquitous and convertible, we can transform fairly efficiently energy into work, food or commodities for further refinement. In a free market it’s those who convert energy into satisfying market need most efficiently that are encouraged to be in more efficiently.
Our fossil flue energy, environmental degrading paradox does bring the effectiveness of the market solution into question. While I am probably the minority in the vocal Bitcoin community when it comes to the impact of green house gas emissions on global warming, it seems the evidence is overwhelming that it's man made.
More over I don’t actually agree that there is a paradox at all it’s not that the free market will burn up all the fuel and destroy the planet “v” the free market is not the problem, and the evidence of global warming is questionable at best.
We could possibly put that paradox to the test if we all agreed to stop using an economic system that was dependent on exponential consumption, until then it’s the system of exponential artificially stimulated growth that’s the bigger problem.
The artificially stimulated growth, over the last 100 years has distorted the cost of energy. Arguably a deflationary spiral will result in a market based allocation of resources and energy and it's unknown if it would or wouldn’t be environmentally sustainable.
The energy cost of mining Bitcoin is also a value judgment, it’s designed to decrease to the marginal energy cost necessary to sustain the security in the network.
It’s a beautiful design as it has nothing to do with efficiency of mining. It has to do with the value judgments of individuals. Note the efficiency of mining has caused the network of miners to consolidate as they guard there efficiency gains and exploit them themselves as opposed to sell them in the market, but this will change over time.
It’s not an environmental choice when you choose how to use your economic energy in a centralized system that uses inflation. Deferred consumption = reduced return on energy invested; choosing energy efficient options while energy infrastructure costs are subsidies by fiat inflation results in energy production that is peg to inflation and exponential consumption relative to economic growth and diminishing capital costs. (Environmental destruction is rewarded); and consuming ethically is less efficient resulting in a tax on environmentally continues consumers relative to inflation.
So when a miner invests energy in mining he is making a value judgment, if he can make a better judgment he should always do that. Bitcoin is just energy, it is not wasted energy, it’s arguably the best most efficient use of energy given people have to freely give up real world uses of energy in order to obtain the virtual proof.
When you buy Bitcoin you send a signal to the miners to mine Bitcoin using their best judgment in making the most effective use of the available energy.
Where the energy comes from is not as important as how environmental efficiently its derived. Its impossible to know what energy is sustainable since we've been distorting the economic and environmental costs for over 100 years. Hopefully bitcoin and PoW can change that.
