For me, the thing that will always define cryptocurrencies was what occurred a few years ago at a datacenter I frequent. Someone had built-out a cage with 50 t

For me, the thing that will always define cryptocurrencies was what occurred a few years ago at a datacenter I frequent. Someone had built-out a cage with 50 to 60 really nice high-end racks of shiny, new bitcoin mining hardware. Snazzy logos, brushed steel chassis and lots of blue LEDs (I think the LEDs are required, in order to be cool). The structured cabling was a work of art. They really went the extra mile to look good. These machines crunched away for maybe a month, and the next time I visited the datacenter, every machine in the cage was turned off and dark. No more blue LEDs. They stayed that way for months, until the datacenter needed the floor space and carted the junk away. I believe the hardware was recycled, I don't know who got the racks. I dug into the story a little and found that the company hadn't paid their power bill. I believe that the hardware wasn't paid for, either, but it was not as efficient as newer hardware and not useful to anyone, so they just left it. Scammers and waste, all the way down.