Just to avoid misunderstandings, I don't think anyone in this conversation said bitcoin was a store of energy. UncleMeat and I certainly didn't.
Re:El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
by UncleMeat on Thursday June 10, 2021 @09:20AM
(#27460397)
Buying 15MW of energy does not undo the cost to the planet if that energy is produced with carbon. The entire planet needs to drop to near zero total emissions. Something resembling carbon arbitrage does not push towards this goal. Firing up the geothermal generator in Iceland to mine BTC just produces BTC. And more BTC is not a resource that changes the productive behavior of the planet.
However, I'm not sure that's any different than saying that money (in general, not just bitcoin) is a store of energy. The difference here may be that the remote hydroelectric in Canada may not have had market demand for 15MW extra, thus it would have been wasted had it not been converted into bitcoin; that's something not all traditional moneys can do.