HN user
sdjkglb
It's not wasting energy, it's consuming previously wasted energy. In fact it puts a floor under energy prices so that it rather than wasting energy that you can't get to consumers you can instead use it to mine bitcoin.
Nic Carter has a good piece on this: https://www.coindesk.com/the-last-word-on-bitcoins-energy-co...
Yeah, the only people that seem to criticise the 12" macbook are people who've never owned one. I still have my 2016 12" m5 and it is a fantastic little machine for people that need to be mobile.
In fact the other reason I got it was that the rest of the line (in Sept 2016) was not appealing at all. I had been set on a maxed out 13" pro, but hated the touchbar. I thought of the 12" as a stopgap until Apple realised the error of their ways.. turned out I would be waiting half a decade.