The holy grail is a cryptocurrency that can scale to billions of users while maintaining sufficient decentralization and security to be immune to state-level attack and corruption. BTC in combination with the higher level protocols such as Lightning (and others not yet conceived) is the only system that I believe can achieve this.
Also, when comparing the deep field images I don't think it can be stressed enough the difference in exposure time between HST and JWST images (Hubble had a 10x longer exposure time). Many many more distant galaxies would become visible in the JWST image with the much longer exposure time. I look forward to seeing some long-exposure deep field images from JWST!
Perhaps if the laser light were put through adjustable optics to set the focal point at the target. That way, anything sufficiently closer or further than the target along the laser's path will see non-dangerous intensity. Still don't want the thing accidentally targeting eye balls though.
The safest and most effective method for storing wealth that the unbanked currently have is to bury gold jewelry somewhere. Gold holds its value better than fiat, but is not easily divisible and there is a large cost to converting it to/from fiat. Bitcoin keys can also be buried, but if necessary they can also be memorized and transported across borders without risk of seizure. Also, having multiple wallets is not complicated; you may be underestimating the cleverness of the unbanked.
The parameters of the Bitcoin code are changeable (and have changed multiple times since inception) via hard-fork based on the 'voting' of the nodes which verify all new blocks and number in the tens of thousands distributed across the globe. The parameters of the protocol are set such that anyone can run a verification node on only a couple hundred dollars worth of hardware, thereby encouraging decentralization.
A person's Bitcoin holdings can be distributed across any number of wallets. How does the thief know (1) their mark owns Bitcoin, (2) how much Bitcoin they are stealing, and (3) whether they have coerced the owner to hand over the keys to all of their wallets?
Energy storage is inefficient and expensive, so a new renewable project based around this is less likely to be funded and built than one that can directly monetize the excess. Profit and greed is the incentive structure for much of human society.
Bitcoin has all of the properties we need in a store of value for the base layer of a digital monetary system of the future. The energy expenditure is required to provide the highest level of security and decentralization which is needed for a global reserve asset. Any other system is vulnerable to attack or centralization, which will inevitably succumb to human greed like every fiat system in history.
You could think of where you store your wealth as a vote for the system which best represents your values, and for the system you would like to see proliferated. Your inclusion adds value to the network, which strengthens its security and helps push it up the adoption s-curve. The more users there are, the more services appear, and the more accessible and useful it becomes.
I was never that interested in monetary policy or the history of money until I found out about Bitcoin and started doing my own research.
Clearly, the ML algorithm had been given the goal of optimizing the happiness of the user. It had ascertained that the user was quite active on social media and had tied a significant amount of their self-worth to the number of likes received from posts and photos. It had correctly calculated that the user would extract more enjoyment from the photo by way of likes if their friend's face were replaced with an arrangement of foliage. The user clearly did not like that friend very much anyway due to the lack of engagement with their posts. Truly impressive technology.
How about as a means to provide financial security to the world's 1.7 billion unbanked, a means for those who live under oppressive rule to preserve wealth in the face of rampant currency debasement, in a form that cannot be confiscated or stolen. Money-printing drives inflation which is is a regressive tax that disproportionally hurts the poor, who don't own real estate or stocks. It accelerates the wealth gap, which further strains our society. Bitcoin is a means to expand financial inclusion, and help level the playing field just a bit. It's not just about greed.
Regarding energy use, Bitcoin mining inherently seeks out the lowest cost electricity which turns out to be either stranded energy (not usable for anything else) or renewable (solar, wind, hydro). This is yet another reason to push governments to stop subsidizing fossil fuels. Also, since Bitcoin mining can be done at any time and in any place, it is able to act as the buyer of last resort for renewable projects whose energy production does not line up with grid demand. Having this extra buyer can greatly reduce the payback period for a proposed solar/wind project that otherwise would not have been able to attract the investment to build it.