What sort of crime are you envisioning that exploiting this would fall under? It's not always fraud to satisfy a poorly written contract, although that is commonly the case.
1 karma · joined June 18, 2024
Here's a simplified hypothetical example to help you understand the legal nuance: I offer all of my money to the first person that can solve 5x5, and I errantly believe that it's a difficult problem to solve.
I am not making a judgement about this specific case.
Solving the past harms means starting from scratch, not giving value to people who previously wasted electricity.
The only 'solution' (more a mitigation) to Etherium proof of work's environmental harms is to devalue it.
Unlike your example, this project actually seems to be a net positive for society that wasn't built on top of unnecessary harms.