The quote from Tyler Cowen seems to suggest that he is "against" bitcoin. But he's merely observing that gold has an industrial value whereas there is no such analogous industrial value for cryptoassets. That does not mean that he's against it, that bitcoin is useless, or that he thinks its in a bubble (cryptoassets could be, he's agnostic).

Mr. Read, who is also an economics professor, said he would rather sell the city’s supply of cheap power to companies employing large numbers of people. Mold-Rite Plastics, which makes bottle caps, also uses about 10 percent of the city’s power, but it employs about 200 people. The mining companies? “They hire a security guard,” he said. “And a guy who comes when something breaks.”

Would he also be for hiring people to dig holes in the ground? At least with hole digging, I can't imagine there are the negative externalities that a "Mole-Ride Plastics" bottle cap farm probably produces.

Colin L. Read, the mayor of Plattsburgh, N.Y., also sees it as a public nuisance. The city was guaranteed a fixed supply of cheap electricity as part of the construction of power-generating dams on the St. Lawrence in the 1950s. Bitcoin mining companies are plugging into that power supply like a swarm of hungry mosquitoes.

This seems like a problem with government price-fixing, not arbitrageurs. Venezuela is a huge source of bitcoin mining because the government imposes a price ceiling on electricity. What costs us $40 of electricity costs them 6 cents.

This article is rank pearl-clutching.