Under the assumption that we understand P and NP a heck of a lot more if we were able to proof their distinctness, this hierarchy could possibly be used for actually USEFUL proof of work in crypto currencies, by choosing problems with exactly the right difficulty from a problem domain like protein folding.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NP-intermediate
Under the assumption that we understand P and NP a heck of a lot more if we were able to proof their distinctness, this hierarchy could possibly be used for actually USEFUL proof of work in crypto currencies, by choosing problems with exactly the right difficulty from a problem domain like protein folding.