Here we go again, every day we clap how good decentralization is, how resilient Bitcoin is, and how the evil gubbermint can't stop it, and then, the same government should subsidize mining or we're in trouble. How the hell is this any different from the government bailing out banks? If the network can't stand for itself it means we have a serious problem, and patching it with cash will only solve the problem temporarily, and when there is no more cash left to do it, then what?
print some more cash, and
lend gift it to mining startups at negative rates? certainly possible in Europe, and apparently becoming more politically feasible in the US. Go-go-GDP!
Overall, I think the gradual embrace of Bitcoin mining by electricity producers is in one way an unfortunate inevitability (as several people have argued already), but in another an important step on the road to Bitcoin's integration into the most fundamental layer of the world economy.
- the current world reserve currency is contract-linked to energy (this contract is, however, increasingly unobserved by big energy exporters)
- Bitcoin is the energy based currency
Being directly energy based was the innovation that set Bitcoin apart from the other attempts to create a permission-less & trustless currency. If energy producers begin to use Bitcoin mining as part of their business model, then one of the absolute root sources of economic production is a BTC stakeholder. To some extent, the energy industry becomes a rival to the central banking institutions. Where previously the banking & energy sectors were in a symbiotic relationship, this change now represents what I think is described as "vertical integration" of the manufacture of energy production with that of transaction tokens, where no possible such integration existed before.
Because energy producers are right at the base layer of the economic system (alongside food production), one of the basic premises for Bitcoin to become systemically influential is moving into place.
I would add to this that huge innovations in the diversification and distribution of energy resources are likely to take place in the medium term. Some will remain in permanent pipe-dream territory, but some will certainly become commercially and economically feasible. Even the past 10-15 years has seen significant changes in where energy come from and who owns the infrastructure to produce it. So, who is mining Bitcoin using their production facilities is set to change in a similar way.