Do you really think Bitcoin mining/speculation is up there with the most wasteful and counter-productive things we do? It doesn't currently have much social value, but, man, there's much worse things. Think of US military spending. If you think that military has a reason to be, while speculation doesn't, you don't understand speculation.
Other things we think are wasteful, are not - either they are for pleasure, or they are byproducts of other things, or they are contextually relevant (i.e. weapons/war), part of the systematic inconsistency but not strictly wasteful. Even then, there are benefits.
Mining BTC using electricity is up there with the stupidest things we do - there are many ways to distribute new BTCs, handing them over to those who consume the most resources is a terrible idea.
Given the cost of electricity and that it's a scarce resource, often subsidized etc. - BTC mining should probably be illegal unless you make your own electricity.
My local government is actively trying to court BTC miners, with what is subsidized electricity - I can't think of a more directly wasteful thing to do.
Bitcoin mining is still wastes half of the electricity of dormant (plugged in but unused) electrical devices in the US -- it's bad but we do other things that are worse
One of these is a minuscule amount of waste over an entire population which is very hard to reduce. The other is a very small group using a very large amount of power for very little gain which would be easy to stop.
Regardless, the solution to all is pretty simple, a carbon tax. If bitcoin miners want to build their own solar farm, let them.
Just because the house is on fire doesn't mean you let the shed that is on the side burn too. All you're saying is that there's an easy fix to save all that energy by just stopping mining bitcoin.
