In absolute terms, sure. In relative terms, it's nothing. Removing BTC energy consumption from the equation barely affects the result. In order to actually do something about climate change, humanity needs to tackle that big 80-90% chunk of energy consumption coming from much more problematic industries. Cryptocurrency is a nuisance by comparison, a minor problem.

I think if you're going to promote this view, you really need to look into the energy growth rate of Bitcoin.

It has doubled in the past 6 months. And gone up 10x over the past 4 years. How many more times can it go up 10x before you would consider it no longer nothing, and now a concern for the world?

The first rule of holes is "stop digging". We are in a hole with energy consumption. And we've set off an automated digger to sit next to us. People are shouting, if we want to get out of this hole, yes we need to fill it, but first need to do something immediately about this automated digging machine.

In my option (and I'm not singling you out as many in crypto feel this way), it is incredibly backwards for anyone to both say stopping climate change and energy consumption is a priority - and that promoting a growing energy beast isn't a huge concern to be addressed.

I'm not ignoring or dismissing the problem. I just think it's not a priority right now. I also completely support ideas that make cryptocurrency mining more sustainable. In this thread I had an amazing discussion about using the waste heat generated by miners for useful purposes. We definitely need more of that.

I don't like these posts claiming cryptocurrency is literally destroying the world and must be banned or regulated out of existence. Those need a reality check, and the reality is cryptocurrency is not even 1% of world energy consumption.