> smaller operations and hobbyists will rush in to fill it. Hash rate gradually climbs back up and instead you have 10x the energy usage because you can no longer run the PoW in a scalable way.
This is false. Miners will spend about the same amount of money they get from block reward to run their operation. Asymptotically, this money is spent to buy electricity. This is the result of competitive pressure from other miners. What you will observe instead is the same amount of electricity burned but with 10x less hash rate.
This is false. Miners will spend about the same amount of money they get from block reward to run their operation. Asymptotically, this money is spent to buy electricity. This is the result of competitive pressure from other miners. What you will observe instead is the same amount of electricity burned but with 10x less hash rate.