Proof of Work is not the only way to do cryptocurrency and there are less wasteful distributed ways of doing cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency has a useful purpos

Proof of Work is not the only way to do cryptocurrency and there are less wasteful distributed ways of doing cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency has a useful purpose: freeing people from government and the choices that government impose on people. Your government doesn't want you to buy weed? You can buy it with cryptocurrency from an online market instead of doing a shady deal in a dark alley, with a higher risk to be scammed. Your government is filling the economy with bubbles through quantitative easing and "stimuli" or by printing money? You can move part of the economy to cryptocurrency. Your government is stealing 50% of your income under threat of violence? Some cryptocurrency can be made harder to track and can be a useful tool to fight government aggression. I doubt cryptocurrency will get us anywhere because the government can just ban cryptocurrency at any time, but there is a clear purpose.