If you don't like that people run computers to play games or wash laundry or watch videos or hash strings, re-pricing electricity fixes that. Germans are experiencing this experiment with increasing electricity prices right now.
Code is speech. Running it is not.
Will we? I am not convinced. In the pandemic, many countries weren't even able to efficiently mandate masks or vaccines, despite the fact the majority supported these measures. The libertarian-anarchy minority is very loud, and will fight the right to Bitcoin tooth and nail.
Not everywhere, and likely not in America. In Europe it’s not as unthinkable. Climate regulations are having real impact on people’s lives, and yet there is support for them. Spun by the right politician as a ‘free’ savings of XX megatons of carbon, outlawing PoW would be an easy sell. And with a massive bloc like Europe not participating in a certain crypto will definitely reduce the global attractiveness of that crypto.
I don’t have a crystal ball and of course I can’t say this will definitely happen. But I think it’s plausible.
Mask regulations in the parts of Europe that I’m familiar with were largely followed.
It’s only unstoppable within the game theoretic model of crypto itself, not within the larger societal context. Once Bitcoin power consumption enters the common discourse, my guess is that politicians will step in and simply outlaw PoW systems. There is no real downside for politicians. The average voter hasn’t yet invested their life savings into Bitcoin, and once PoS systems exist at scale proponents can’t use the innovation argument anymore. Especially in Europe, politicians are serious about climate and are pondering much more draconian changes than outlawing some forms of crypto.