Out of every video Kurzgesagt has ever produced, my favorite is this one, which talks about a stellar engine that a type Ⅱ civilization could be using: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3y8AIEX_dU
Bitcoin comes to mind. If the future of transacting money and information is on proof-of-work blockchains, then does that mean we should expect all sufficiently advanced civilizations to have Dyson spheres encircling stars across the galaxy, mining crypto.
In this [0] comment, I jokingly defined the Nakamoto Scale which is basically the Kardashev Scale with the additional requirement that all energy has to be used for crypto mining and that no actually useful output should be produced. It even lead to follow-up discussions ;)
The true existential dread is discovering advanced civilisations exploiting the mass and energy of entire galaxy just to power their own cryptocurrencies.
Reminds me of the meme: "Wait, so it's all Bitcoin?" "Always has been."
