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Energy use for cryptocoin mining on average drives up the cost of energy for everyone. Maybe not a lot, and maybe the production side expands. But if it is using fossil fuel to generating electricity, it is also harming the planet via climate change and pollution.

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What happens when costs get high? People innovate! When demand for bitcoin increases, more money will be invested in cheaper and more abundant power sources.

Alas, that can also mean innovation in lobbying and corruption to get even more subsidised coal.

Market forces don't really discriminate one innovation over another by whether it's socially desirable to you or me.

Following this logic, our current period of inflation must be a real boon for innovation then?

Isn't it? I see a lot of investment in decoupling supply chains from China which was a single point of failure and contributed to inflation when it closed down. Also a lot of investment in renewables or alt-energy sources after Russia decided to use NatGas as a tool in its current war.

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