Yes, Bitcoin uses proof of wasted computation as its security mechanism. That’s why it’s widely recognized as an inefficient design because you can just look at the alternatives which are faster, more secure, or both and do not require the energy equivalent of a fair-sized country to operate a database.

It’s a great software engineering case study: the algorithm is a neat solution to a problem that almost nobody has, so while it’s cool as an intellectual exercise it’s failed to see much adoption even as it passes the middle of its second decade because it’s not cost effective for most people. It’s kind of like the idea of a supersonic airliner: a neat engineering challenge but a failure in the marketplace because 99.9% of people don’t need the problem it solves desperately enough to pay so much more.