More energy would be used up by the ethereum network to verify this token rather than an individual hackspace miner, so it should be cheaper than buying ether.

More energy would be used up by the ethereum network to verify this token rather than an individual hackspace miner, so it should be cheaper than buying ether. Another choice is PoS; one of the tutorials I listed is for a PoS coin. Yet another choice is instamining/pre-mining.