Same for the others. Golem is a nice idea with a lot of potential, but as of right now, Azure, AWS, and GCE are where programmers go for rentable computer power. Maybe one day that place will be golem. Maybe not. Right now it is all just potential.
I think part of the parent's point is the potential of crypt-currencies is often touted, but so far little has been shown in actual results. How long until there are actual results?
That's beside the point, though. Knowing that Ethereum and Bitcoin consume more energy than Iceland and Switzerland respectively, why don't we turn them off until they're providing actual use? I get that markets need time to figure out if a product is useful and useless things get built all the time, but has that discovery process ever been done at this scale before? For instance, if proof-of-work ends up spending as much electricity as the United States and we still can't use it for anything meaningful, shouldn't we be concerned? I know "turn them off" sounds silly, but you can tax the miners or impose energy consumption caps until there is a smart contract out there that is arguably benefiting society.
If concern for humanity's wellbeing on this earth is a "throw away" concern to you, then maybe you can provide an argument for why everything's going to be OK? Have we fixed global warming and I just didn't get the memo?
Ethereum is a vibrant, growing ecosystem with many many ambitious projects that have or are nearing release (maker, golem, swarm, bat, you need to do some research because the list is extensive). the above statement is really ridiculous but unfortunately the kind of throw away comment that gets voted to the top of an hn thread. what a sad place this is!