The energy is a pure waste. The "difficulty" of bitcoin blocks is continually increasing but the utility of being able to transact in bitcoin is not greater today than it was in 2015 (arguably less, since fewer merchants will sell goods in bitcoin)

Some authority could just demand your bitcoin on some gimmicky pretext (USA) or draft laws largely stymying its use (China). Also I've yet to find a reason to transfer $30k in one go for any reason - I've yet to fall victim to some kidnapper or blackmailer who wants cash by the evening without raising any alarms on my part.

> The energy isnt wasted though, the safety of the trustless transaction is proportional to the expended energy. While not the source of value, it is a necessity, not a waste.

This would be somewhat true if Bitcoin were the only mechanism for trustless transactions, but there are others that consume far less energy, such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawala.

In what way is Hawala trustless?

Oops, you're absolutely right, I was thinking of distributed payments and somehow confused that in my head with being trustless...

how could you possibly call Hawala trustless if you understand it?

Oops, you're absolutely right, I was thinking of distributed payments and somehow confused that in my head with being trustless...