While the discussion about consensus algorithms is interesting and each side has good points, it should not be confused with the much more pertinent decision ab

While the discussion about consensus algorithms is interesting and each side has good points, it should not be confused with the much more pertinent decision about simbolic currency (conceptually similar to fiat) versus proof of burned resources money (conceptually similar to gold). We should not confuse the two topics. It's entirely possible to have a chain where the consensus is established by PoW, yet the monetary base is created by decree without any wasted resources, for example gifted to some charities or dropped by helicopter to anyone who has a Twitter account. While the security PoW chains create is proportional to the amount of resources spent, there is absolutely no reason to think the current level of burn in Bitcoin is optimal - and strong reason to think that there is massive waste, that is, Bitcoin protects against double spend to a degree orders of magnitude harder than what a credible attacker might be willing to spend. What results is wasted energy that brings no tangible security to the users of the currency.