Bitcoin power consumption live
As a keen environmentalist I wanted to know the truth about Bitcoins energy consumption & environmental impact.This site is in response to the vast amounts of FUD & bravado generated by vested interests from both sides.
World Hash x 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 222 = (Calculating) Mt per year
(Calculating) - (Calculating) Mitigation = (NetCO) Mt per year
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Above is a live Bitcoin BTC ONLY calculation. 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 a cost & indeed should have a cost. Banks and Gold require electricity, Fossil fuel & staff. 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 has dropped from its peek of approximately 10.2 GW this is mostly due to the 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
Like mining gold out of the ground. Currently 6.25BTC
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Like melting, verifying /distributing gold bars and coins). Varies block to block but generally ≈0.12BTC
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Like accounting
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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 and in circulation, by 2140 virtually all Bitcoin will be mined.
Subsequent Halvening's (every 4 years) coupled with Tech advances will make it much easier to simply buy rather than mine, the power consumption should drop as the block reward drops & the tech entry level increases. Miners will then be mostly 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 184,427 kWh to mine 1 Bitcoin.
It takes 7.4kWh to mine 1 Bitcoin transaction.
This one transaction could contain 100s-10,000s of Lightning or Batched transactions.
We must remember not to mix Block rewards with transaction fees, here I've separated them into their two roles.
It takes 7.4kWh to mine 1 Bitcoin transaction.
This one transaction could contain 100s-10,000s of Lightning or Batched transactions.
We must remember not to mix Block rewards with transaction fees, here I've separated them into their two roles.
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Bearing in mind a single transaction could easily be £10M ,with a carbon footprint of 1.6kg. You couldn’t drive an armoured lorry a couple of miles down the road for that !
Even better 1 lightning transaction or channel opened 1 year ago, may close a year later having performed a virtually limitless amount of transactions ! Now you’re dividing that 1.6kg by 1000s ! We’re talking a carbon footprint of less than an email ! |
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Bitcoin is like the Railway network, relatively inefficient if it was a single occupancy vehicle but dependable.
Lightning is someone telling your uncle Bob (over the phone) to give Alice £5 , then sending £5 to Bob with Pete on the Train.🤔 |
Bitcoin & Technology.
In the future Technological improvements will increase the hash rate, and not so much brute Giga Watts. Check out the bitcoin mining museum
2009In 2009 you could mine on a regular PC
97,000,000 J/THs 
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2022 - Bitmain S19 XPMining now is only profitable on dedicated hardware such as a Bitmain S19j ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) 3030 Watts
21.5 J/THs. Cost $10,000 
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Sources Links & Related Articles
Calculations assume -
Electricity gCO₂/kwh = 222g
For comparison UK Grid (2020) carbon intensity 181gCO₂/kWh
US Grid is ≈ 446gCO₂/kWh
Cost of electricity = 0.05p/kWh
Electricity gCO₂/kwh = 222g
For comparison UK Grid (2020) carbon intensity 181gCO₂/kWh
US Grid is ≈ 446gCO₂/kWh
Cost of electricity = 0.05p/kWh
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
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
Not your keys - Not your coins
Always self custardy your private keys - More here https://www.thehodler.info
$564,439,772,111
Tick Tock Next BlockSatoshi Nakamoto
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