Bitcoin Mining’s Three Body Problem
'Bitcoin is the product of hashpower. The industry wouldn’t exist without incentivizing miners to continuously invest in hardware and burning electricity to augment Bitcoin network’s settlement assurance'<p>I think this is a common misconception. People don't need to continually invest in mining hardware to keep it going. The entire Bitcoin network could technically be run off a single Rasberry Pi.  The network hash rate is only so high because the ROI is there, but without it, people would still be mining.<p>Case in point, there are plenty of long forgotten altcoins out there that people are mining just for fun. At the end of the day your computer is no different from an expensive space heater. Might as well mine some crypto with it.