The author of this article has a misconception that the marginal cost for processing a bitcoin transaction is "1.57 American household's yearly consumption". That's not correct -- the marginal cost is closer to the electricity spent by your processor in rendering this web page.
It is the upfront cost of getting a partial SHA256 collision and being able to add transactions to the blockchain that is massive, at least for this level of transactional volume. Bitcoin becomes more sustainable the more people use it, as the average TX costs goes down.
Whether other consensus systems like Proof of Stake should replace Proof of Work is a more interesting question.
It is the upfront cost of getting a partial SHA256 collision and being able to add transactions to the blockchain that is massive, at least for this level of transactional volume. Bitcoin becomes more sustainable the more people use it, as the average TX costs goes down.
Whether other consensus systems like Proof of Stake should replace Proof of Work is a more interesting question.