Here we go again...
1) I was a skeptic of coin on the cypherpunks mailing list in the 90's. While I laud the goal of ensuring personal autonomy in our financial transactions, the real-world political blowback was always the fatal weakness.
2) In 1998 the CAP Theorem was proven. Embarrassingly, I did not realize until it was pointed out here that the CAP theorem puts a hard limit on what can be achieved with coin. That limit is far too low to ever allow it to function as a broad currency.
3) I don't know when the idea of "proof of stake" came out. I finally read up on it. If you think that coin is generally a scam, then this should be your ultimate proof. Any coin using this system is violating the very basis of a decentralized "currency".
Having said all of that, this study is extraordinarily problematic. I hope the cryptobros sue to stop it--and win. Why? Because I really don't want the government telling me what I can use electricity to do. Please think carefully about just what that means.
Since Netflix came up, let's talk about that. That's 93 billion hours in the first six months of 2023 (per Forbes). So let's say 186 billion a year. Accepting the 17,000-to-1 conversion claimed above, that's just shy of 11 million entries on the blockchain (Not transactions--there are multiple transactions per entry). Or 30000 per day. Or 1250 an hour. So Netflix is absolutely dwarfing Bitcoin for power usage. And producing what? Overweight viewers. If your goal is to cut back on electricity consumption, you should target the entertainment industry.
Or, we could be more closely aligned and talk about the horror show that is the lightning trading system in the stock and commodities markets. That industry is not only consuming boatloads of power, it is also attracting many of our brightest brains and rewarding them simply for stealing from each other anyone foolish enough to try to be a day trader.
If we're going to outlaw something based on its ill effects, I would go after Vegas & casinos generally--they are destroying far more lives than coin will ever touch.
But I don't. I don't because I have my hobbies, and I demand that the government leave me free to pursue them.
You might think about how things might go if yours becomes the disfavored hobby.