A few observations: Many of the bitcoin mining rigs out there are operating on either "borrowed" or idle equipment- at least part of the energy on these rigs w

A few observations: Many of the bitcoin mining rigs out there are operating on either "borrowed" or idle equipment- at least part of the energy on these rigs would have been wasted anyway. Creating any good, be it the next version of Warcraft, or mining real physical gold, has a natural resource consumption associated with it. Bitcoin comes out smelling like a rose compared to real gold mining- even a dirty Chinese coal power plant can't hold a candle to the scale of earth movers, decapitated mountains, and cyanide leach ponds, particularly per dollar equivalent of real gold generated. (But mined gold has real-world physical uses besides stores of value, right? Well, not really. The amount of gold used to make jewelry (used in many cultures as a store of value) roughly equals the amount of gold mined in a given year. Everything else comes from existing stock, recycling and reuse.)