Almost every cryptocurrency other than bitcoin is far more efficient than bitcoin. Bitcoin went though a really weird hostile takeover by Binance, who realized that if they made Bitcoin super inefficient and gave it high transaction fees, then they could make a ton of money by pushing their alternative currencies and proprietary software. It was super effective, and they managed to keep the market centered around Bitcoin, and also make Bitcoin near useless as a peer-to-peer digital currency. Crypto miners will always spend the most effort on the most valuable currency, so we’ve ended up in a system that uses a ton of energy with at best marginal value to the users.

Bitcoin Cash is the closest thing to the original goals of Bitcoin, and anything based on Etherium will be much more efficient since it’s based on proof-of-stake instead of proof-of-work.