Yes definitely the energy consumption is being ridiculously high and difficult to scale, particularly for BTC.
My interest in Ether is the capability it is providing for decentralized apps too.
While many crypto currencies have risen / are still rising to take over the monetary system, but i think the long term idea is to essentially co-exist with our current monetary system, and hopefully take the lion's share of it. Which I believe will happen over time despite all the "wars" being waged on crypto nowadays.
I've recently came across a new crypto by the name of JSEcoin, whose essential purpose is to cut down on energy costs too while making mining possible via browsers/client side https://jsecoin.com/platform/?lander=1&utm_source=referral&utm_campaign=aff1060&utm_content= (referral link) Not sure how much this would succeed but it goes along the same concept at bringing efficiency into crypto.
Bitshares definitely sound interesting too, I will have a look at it.
I'll be following your news - you have some good grasp of crypto world so pleasure meeting you!
Thanks again!