Crypto uses less energy than huge data-centers. Hear me out: Proof-of-Stake is more energy efficient than a data-center and runs on small devices like Raspberry Pi. Modern blockchains like MINA only store the ZK proof for the whole chain, so, even the storage requirements are very minimal.
Already a 6 kW rack will soon cost 7500 Euro in Germany. After that that will be the case around the world. That is when Web 3.0 will make a comeback.
Ethereum does have plans to switch to 'proof of stake' (as opposed to its current 'proof of work') which would dramatically decrease the power consumption.
Social recovery wallets address the first objection.
Proof of Stake reduces blockchain energy consumption by a lot. I've seen people quoting that a proof of stake block production consumes about as much energy as a Google search.
Only if it is based on proof of work. Many cryptocurrencies are now based on proof of stake which does not generally require large amounts of energy. See Eth2 for an example.
It can do this because it doesn't rely on any sort of "work." It's just another internet protocol.
Proof of stake doesn't have anything to do with tps, so that won't change significantly. The solutions to that are rollups (second layers that inherit the full security of the main chain) and sharding (which multiplies the capacity of rollups). Some rollup systems are in production today, capable of a couple thousand tps. According to the most recent plan I saw, sharding would multiply that by twenty, initially.
The energy used to secure PoW networks is indeed wasteful. But just a heads-up, Ethereum is currently transitioning to Proof of Stake consensus mechanism which will reduce electricity costs by an order of magnitude.
Some are working on a consensus system called proof of stake which does not use energy. It is not clear whether it will be fully secure, etc., but if you read about this stuff decades ago you might want to google and research primarily Bitcoin and Ethereum.
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