In order to mine new "coins" the computation becomes more complex and time-consuming...and power consuming.
That's not true
In the Bitcoin protocol new coins are created automatically.
The only power used is a contest to see who gets those new coins
This is not really necessary, and could be shut down and alternative methods used for new coin distribution.
But it does have a good side effect it does make the blockchain ledger harder to corrupt.
Anybody who says that they have done the analysis and say the energy requirements will grow exponentially until the blockchain collapses are just clueless.
That's not true
In the Bitcoin protocol new coins are created automatically.
The only power used is a contest to see who gets those new coins This is not really necessary, and could be shut down and alternative methods used for new coin distribution. But it does have a good side effect it does make the blockchain ledger harder to corrupt.
Anybody who says that they have done the analysis and say the energy requirements will grow exponentially until the blockchain collapses are just clueless.