Entertainment increases happiness and is a positive for humanity, even if I personally don't enjoy the entertainment. There is no comparison to wasting energy doing worthless make-work.

I think many on eg r/Bitcoin find the eternal price developments of Bitcoin quite entertaining. Perhaps Bitcoin is just a form of entertainment you don't enjoy? Or were do you draw the line?

You can compare the energy expenditure of your entertainment against (e.g.) driving a car to the theater.

I have never owned bitcoin but I suppose those who mine also have their happiness increased if they earn bitcoin by mining.

I don't believe in the concept of a "humanity". There are humans.

You did not address the parent's point at all and instead made a pathetic attempt at deflection with a strawman. Both Netflix and Netflix customers benefit, in the form of lower electricity bills, if either find a way to use energy more efficiently. And since you can only spend 24 hours a day watching TV, the increased efficiency can only be offset by increased consumption to a minimal extent.

Bitcoin has no incentive to do this, and no ceiling on consumption, since any efficiency gains just get plowed straight into increased mining, and so energy consumption can only ratchet up, forever. Address that claim, please.

The price of a bitcoin sets an upper bound on consumption of energy where the miner will be in a place that is no longer profitable since energy costs money. On top of this, miners have no upward way to influence the price of bitcoin, only downward (selling of coins, or destruction of trust).

If we just properly externalized the cost of CO2 emissions it solves this problem along with many others. So why don't we do that?

I believe the argument is that it increases redundancy and resilience of the renewable power supply...

That redundancy is otherwise uneconomical to produce (if there isn't the demand).

When that redundancy is needed, that power can be redirected from the miners. Presumably the miners are expected to behave and switch off at such times, but there is no reason why that expectation can't be legislated.

One can easily structure an energy market to pay for redundancy. There is zero reason why we’d need crypto to fund expansion of renewable energy.

If freezing temps in Texas or Buffalo that lead to deaths don't encourage improving the grid, I don't think crypto will either.