> The only product of spending the energy is a proof that the energy was spent
yes, and if that proof has value - then it's not a waste!
> there is no relationship between the absolute energy spent and the utility of the network
of course there is - security of the blockchain is proportional top energy spent mining it.
> higher the difficulty the more energy wasted in order to maintain the status quo
you got this backwards, difficulty goes higher because more energy is spent (or there is breakthrough in mining efficiency like cpu->gpu, gpu->fpga, fpga->asic, see next paragraph). and miners spend more energy because market tells them it values the security / utility / w/e of the bitcoin more.
> introduction of more efficient hardware into the network increases overall energy consumption because everyone else without cutting edge ASIC technology has to increase their energy output to compensate for the increase in hash rate
this makes no sense.. introduction of more efficient hardware increases the difficulty, not total energy spent. inefficient miner will remain inefficient and not-profitable no matter how much energy they will be spending.
Using electricity as a proof of investment is still a waste of electricity.
Proof of work is to establish that money is being spent. A less wasteful system wouldn't convert money into electricity to feed into computations to prove that.
Proving that you lit heaps of cash on fire would be less wasteful.
Just because a process is wasteful doesn't mean it isn't valuable. Air freight is wasteful but is also valuable.
> Proof of work is to establish that money is being spent
nope. it's a proof that energy was consumed. money is human concept, energy is universal absolute.
> Just because a process is wasteful doesn't mean it isn't valuable
energy consumption is inherently wasteful activity (as in there is some amount of "waste" in the world produced for the energy to become consumable). by this definition literally everything is wasteful and the label loses it's meaning.
but labels are useful and i (and the official definition) prefer using the term wasteful for something that is intentionally or unnecessarily inefficient.
bitcoin is neither - every joule spent mining bitcoins is necessary to provide the level of security demanded by the market. you can't spend less energy to provide same level of security, because in bitcoin they are pretty much the same.
yes, and if that proof has value - then it's not a waste!
> there is no relationship between the absolute energy spent and the utility of the network
of course there is - security of the blockchain is proportional top energy spent mining it.
> higher the difficulty the more energy wasted in order to maintain the status quo
you got this backwards, difficulty goes higher because more energy is spent (or there is breakthrough in mining efficiency like cpu->gpu, gpu->fpga, fpga->asic, see next paragraph). and miners spend more energy because market tells them it values the security / utility / w/e of the bitcoin more.
> introduction of more efficient hardware into the network increases overall energy consumption because everyone else without cutting edge ASIC technology has to increase their energy output to compensate for the increase in hash rate
this makes no sense.. introduction of more efficient hardware increases the difficulty, not total energy spent. inefficient miner will remain inefficient and not-profitable no matter how much energy they will be spending.