Bitcoin power consumption index live
As a keen environmentalist I wanted to know the truth about Bitcoins energy consumption & environmental impact. Whilst bitcoin does have undeniable CO2 emissions (greatly exaggerated by vested interests) the more obscure environmental upside of Bitcoin is potentially huge !
World Hash x Bitcoin Average J/THash = Watts.
(calculating) x (calculating) = (calculating) GW
Bitcoin Power Consumption = Watts x Hours/year
Power: (Calculating) TWh per year
Bitcoin CO₂ = Power x gCO₂/kWh
CO₂ (Scope 2): (Calculating) x 217 = (Calculating) Mt per year
(Calculating) - (Calculating) Mitigation = (NetCO) Mt per year
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All calculations are Bitcoin BTC ONLY
Factors are-
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For comparison the Three Gorges Dam has a generating capacity of 22.5 GW
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All Currencies have an environmental cost.
- Paper money (fiat) requires Banks. Banks need Electricity, Fossil fuel for heating and vehicles, staff, staff travel & private jets
- Gold requires mining consuming vast amounts of fossil fuels, vehicles & transportation.
- Bartering has the hassle of converting cows to fractions of houses plus remembering who owes what to who and maybe having to forcefully remind them when they conveniently forget.
Bitcoins power consumption peeked at approximately 10.2 GW in 2021. Due to drop in price miners have turned off their least efficient machines to stay competitive, as a result the average mine efficiency has improved.
Where does Bitcoins energy go ?
Bitcoins power consumption serves three purposes
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≈ 98% Block reward
Like mining gold out of the ground. The block reward is currently 6.25 BTC
Gold takes hard work to acquire so does Bitcoin - Proof Of Work 
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≈ 2% Transaction fees
Additional reward is for processing all the transactions. Like melting, distributing gold bars and coins
0.1 - 0.3 BTC per block 
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0.0008% Bitcoin nodes
10,000s of nodes storing & verifying every transaction ever.
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When the gold's gone most miners will pack up and go home
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By 2028 over 98% coins will be mined & by 2140 virtually all coins will be mined. Subsequent Halvening's every 4 years coupled with tech advances will make it much easier to simply buy rather than mine.
Miners will be increasingly hashing for transaction fees + an increasingly tiny block reward, the "Gold Rush" will be over considerably reducing power consumption, leaving the world with a much more slimline incorruptible economic backbone of world money. No more bailouts ! The real cost of Banks. |
Bitcoin electricity per transaction
It takes roughy 184,427 kWh to mine 1 Bitcoin.
It takes roughly 7.4kWh to mine 1 Bitcoin transaction.
This one transaction could contain 10s-10,000s of Lightning or Batched transactions.
Here I've separated Bitcoins power consumption for Block reward & Transaction fees.
It takes roughly 7.4kWh to mine 1 Bitcoin transaction.
This one transaction could contain 10s-10,000s of Lightning or Batched transactions.
Here I've separated Bitcoins power consumption for Block reward & Transaction fees.
The average Bitcoin transaction is roughly £200,000 with a carbon footprint of 1.64kg. Bearing in mind it could be sent to the far side of the world, an armoured car carrying gold bars may clock up the same carbon foot print just driving a couple of miles down the road.
Even better 1 lightning transaction or channel opened, may close a year later having performed a virtually limitless amount of transactions ! Now you’re dividing that 2 x 1.64kg by 1000s ! We’re talking a carbon footprint of less than an email !
Even better 1 lightning transaction or channel opened, may close a year later having performed a virtually limitless amount of transactions ! Now you’re dividing that 2 x 1.64kg by 1000s ! We’re talking a carbon footprint of less than an email !
Bitcoin & Technology.
In the future Technological improvements will increase the hash rate, and not so much brute power. From 2009 to 2022 represents a 45,000% improvement in mining hardware efficiency.
2009In 2009 you could mine on a regular PC
97,000,000 J/THs |
2022 - Bitmain S19 XPMining now is only profitable on dedicated hardware such as a Bitmain S19j 140TH XP ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) 3030 Watts
21.5 J/THs. Cost $5,500 |
Interesting Facts
If entire Bitcoin mining network consisted of Bitmain S19 XP 140TH ASICs it would require -
- 1,785,714 units (250,000,000TH / 140TH)
- Consuming 1,785,714 x 3030Watts = 5.41 GW
Sources Links & Related Articles
This survey by University Of Cambridge shows Bitcoin is powered by 39% renewables but rather confusingly talks about Bitmain Antminer S5 & S7 (2015 out of date mining hardware).
Bitcoin Mining Council - bitcoinminingcouncil.com
Miner Daily - Moore’s Law vs Bitcoin ASICs and Network Growth
Green Bitcoin: Miners Demand Cleaner Energy
Bitcoin Stats - Bitinfocharts
Check out the bitcoin mining museum
Bitcoin Mining Council - bitcoinminingcouncil.com
Miner Daily - Moore’s Law vs Bitcoin ASICs and Network Growth
Green Bitcoin: Miners Demand Cleaner Energy
Bitcoin Stats - Bitinfocharts
Check out the bitcoin mining museum
