All the talk about wasting energy with proof of work algorithms misunderstands the system. Bitcoins Electricity Standard is the perfect commodity based currency for our times.
Why the gold system worked
The gold standard was superior to fiat money for the little guy because before money was created work had to happen- miners had to be employed to mine gold , transportation paid for to move gold. Sure the system could lever up or down due to fractional reserve banking but technology, prudence and precision of information allowed only so much levering up and down. This resulted in short economic cycles. Still if more money was to be used by government and business they needed to pay for labor. Labor was demanded no matter what industry he borrowed money was used for. Wages growth should be and was strong in this scenario. In contrast in the fiat system if more money is needed it can go directly to the users or bankers. Some of this ends up leading to labor but if it goes to high wage not labor intensive (finance and tech) then it just adds to wage inequality. Hmm sounds familiar?
Notice that real median wages made broad gains until we went off the gold standard in 1971. After that ... wealth inequality.
Chart real wages
Why Bitcoin is an Electrity Standard
So the gold standard was good for median incomes but what would bitcoin standard be like? It's an Electricity Standard. For bitcoin to run you are only limited by the cost of elecritcity. To create more bitcoin you need miners which need electricity, which requires coal, gas, people operating the power. Changes in the cost of electricity impact bitcoin. Electricty can't be created on a whim. And unlike gold bitcoin needs electricty to keep running.
Why Electricity is the Perfect Commodity for Modern Age
Electricity is about 8 percent of us GDP and less in less modern countries. It should only increase as robots, self driving cars and bitcoin use more and more electricity. Electricty is power you need it for everything. In he future electricity cost will be the most important costs for any organization. In the future bitcoin will be a large user of power, enough to impact the price of everything.
Assuming market cap and hash rate ( energy usage) increase together, If bitcoIn was similar in market cap to the South African rand (m2 =$200b) it would need 70x the electricty it uses now. To reach usd m0 levels it would be 1000x the electricty it uses today and that is before the difficult y increase. To reach m2 maybe 6000x is needed. Some have estimated bitcoin in 2015 used between th energy of a power plant in Bangladesh to a plant in Sacramento.
With increasing automation electricty will eventually be tied to marginal price of labor.
Electricty is the recurring price of robots.
If bitcoin grows it will be a meaningful input into the price of electricity and thus robots. If robots are the alternative to labor it will also impact the marginal cost of labor and real wages.