> it should be be unprofitable to produce or acquire hardware specifically for mining it If the coin becomes important or profitable, would this still be true?

> it should be be unprofitable to produce or acquire hardware specifically for mining it If the coin becomes important or profitable, would this still be true? It seems like some of these coins replace direct energy use (coal/nuclear) with indirect energy use (create chips in factories from mined materials, all using coal/nuclear).