I think this is great news because it reduces wasted energy. The sooner cryptocurrency stops boiling the ocean, the sooner the rest of us can ignore it.
I have no problem with weird nerds having their own hobbies (I have a model train set!) as long as they are not actively hurting anyone.
You do realize that the entire cryptocurrency space (all coins, regardless of their names) are using less electricity than the total of electronics that are in standby in US only. So, if you want to have an impact, better to reorient your efforts to have the industry do away with standby idea. That was a good idea 5 decades ago in 70's, when electronics were expensive and they lasted a decade. But nowadays, with planned obsolesce, it makes no sense to have standby technology implemented to make the electronics last longer because they fail after one year anyway due to other factors rather than transient response on startup (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transient_response & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transient_state)
So, boiling the ocean is not done by this anyway, my point.
There was an article that said bitcoin blockchain uses as much energy as entire country of Argentina, which made rounds here in HN (https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56012952). In that graph there you also get US consumption too. And China's as well. Now compare them and tell me again the oceans are boiling because of bitcoin.
You haven't provided the requested data. What's the energy consumption of "the total of electronics that are in standby in the US only"?
Actually, let math out an estimate of what your claim amounts to. Bitcoin uses ~125TWh/yr of electricity. The US has ~125 million households. That means Bitcoin uses about 1MWh/yr per US household, or on average, about 114W per US household. If I assume that's 5V DC circuits that's about 22A.
Therefore, your claim that Bitcoin uses more electricity than standby circuits in the US implies that standby circuits are consuming more electricity than the maximum capacity of one of the circuits in a typical circuit breaker box. That doesn't pass the smell test.
I have no problem with weird nerds having their own hobbies (I have a model train set!) as long as they are not actively hurting anyone.
Now do the same for bitcoin.