> Cost of entering oPoW hardware manufacturing will be much lower That just means more mining hardware will be manufactured and used. They might use less energ

> Cost of entering oPoW hardware manufacturing will be much lower That just means more mining hardware will be manufactured and used. They might use less energy to run each one, but that likely to be balanced out by the energy costs of manufacture and the e-waste. More mining hardware will mean the difficulty will be increased by the system. If a Bitcoin is worth $40,000, a miner somewhere will be prepared to spend approaching $40,000 to mine it. That money will be spent on a combination of buying the hardware and energy for running the hardware. Any reduction in energy use or hardware costs will just mean the $40,000 will stretch further, meaning more e-waste and/or more energy use, and an adjustment in difficulty by the network.