I agree that Bitcoin&#x27;s energy costs risk becoming ridiculously high, but general IT energy expenditures are <i>currently</i> 10% of the world&#x27;s total, eclipsing aviation [1].<p>Bearing this in mind, using things like PHP, Python and Ruby to build massive web services also seems massively wasteful to me.  I&#x27;m <i>quite</i> sure that compared to a lower level language like Go or C++, those languages use up an order of magnitude more energy.  The energy difference between those two language groups  almost certainly exceeds Bitcoin&#x27;s total energy usage <i>right now</i>, and I don&#x27;t see people moaning about this.<p>I mean, build your prototype using one of those languages, but once you starting building a significant audience, switch over to C++, Go, or Rust, and use a fraction of the energy you use with Python or Ruby.<p>1. <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theregister.co.uk&#x2F;2013&#x2F;08&#x2F;16&#x2F;it_electricity_use_worse_than_you_thought&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theregister.co.uk&#x2F;2013&#x2F;08&#x2F;16&#x2F;it_electricity_use_w...</a>