“All those arguing “bitcoin mining is a waste of energy” are actually saying that to them bitcoin has no value that warrants such use. However, bitcoin has immense value as an internationally available non-state money and monetary network - one with a strictly limited supply, unparalleled security, that’s uncensorable and with a proven track record of uptime and reliability.”
That’s not what I’m saying at all. I’m not saying Bitcoin doesn’t have benefits that warrants its use and clearly it is better than nothing for the unbanked and the whole concept of a fixed supply is better than endless printing of debt based currency.
Also, when all’s said and done it was the thing that kickstarted the whole industry and showed the way for all the other projects like it (although not Safe I understand because that was already in development years earlier!).
Bitcoin is a bit like Stephenson’s Rocket. It proved the concept, proved it made sense commercially (Rocket was used on railways for several years), was (relatively) safe and popularised steam powered transport. So why isn’t it in use today on railways all over the world? Because it was hugely inefficient and Stephenson immediately started work on better designs and other engineers improved on those, etc.
I’m saying the way that Bitcoin works is very wasteful. I don’t want to deprive you of your coffee. But if the coffee machine in your local shop is boiling 100 gallons of water instead of a few ounces to make each cup then it’s a wasteful machine.