This isn't at all true. 1.4 terawatts would only power about 230,000 homes. And other sources have estimated bitcoin's energy cost at significantly lower: 330 m

This isn't at all true. 1.4 terawatts would only power about 230,000 homes. And other sources have estimated bitcoin's energy cost at significantly lower: 330 megawatts: https://securitygladiators.com/2017/03/15/bitcoin-uses-energy-a-lot/ https://securitygladiators.com/2017/03/15/bitcoin-uses-energ... . Also think about the cost of normal money. Just printing currency costs the US over $700 million per year: https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12771.htm https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12771.htm . This is not to mention the rest of the infrastructure. Last point, Bitcoin mining won't get much more energy intensive. Why? Because the amount of energy used in mining is directly proportional to the value of mining a block. As soon as segwit is activated tomorrow, the value of mining will drop. As soon as the lightning network funnels 99% of transactions off the blockchain, the value of mining will drop. As soon as bigger block sizes are allowed, the value of mining will drop. Bitcoin doesn't have to be any more "wasteful" than is needed to secure the blockchain.