1) So on energy usage of BTC:
The profile will change long-term. Right now the main driver is from block rewards.
But as block rewards exponentially decay, those will become less relevant.
Long-term, there are really two core drivers.
Conversation
In general it's unclear if BTC will be able to maintain the block reward decay over time and still be usable.
Pure reliance on tx fees has issues for stability of the longest chain: cs.princeton.edu/~smattw/CKWN-C
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A short reply with possible long term consequences.
Good article too.
$BTC is great, but it wasn't developed with the current mining infrastructure in mind.