Digiconomist is committed to promoting (the development of) sustainable blockchain technology. Blockchain protocols such as Bitcoin currently run on the energy-slurping proof-of-work algorithm (creating these proofs of work is better known as “mining”). The Bitcoin Energy Consumption index is a key tool that was created to provide insight into this energy consumption amount, and raise awareness on the environmental damage caused of the proof-of-work algorithm. This page uses historical data from the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index to summarise the sustainability progress and performance of the Bitcoin protocol over the past month.
For a daily estimate of Bitcoin’s energy consumption make sure to visit the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index.
Monthly Changes
The highlights of the past month are as follows:
| Description | Value | Monthly change | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mining Revenue | For August 2023 | ||
| Average Bitcoin Price | $27,873 | -7.35% |  |
| Average Price Volatility | 18.03% | -36.13% | |
| Mining Revenue from Fees | $16,523,070 | -12.64% | |
| Mining Revenue from Blocks Mined | $787,379,288 | -7.38% | |
| Total Mining Revenue | $803,902,358 | -7.49% | |
| Mining Costs | |||
| Total Costs of Mining | $457,621,007 | 5.73% |  |
| Percentage of Total Revenue | 56.92% | 14.29% | |
| Total KWh Consumed | 9,357,025,833 | 3.27% | |
| Network Statistics | |||
| Total Transactions Processed | 14,411,799 | 2.00% |  |
| Average KWh Consumed per TX | 649 | 1.25% | |
| Average Fee per Transaction | $1.15 | -14.18% | |
| Energy cost per TX (at 5 cents per KWh) | $32.45 | 1.25% | |
| Average Network Hashrate (GH/s) | 386,224,512,728 | 2.78% | |
| Average Network Effciency (J/GH) | 0.03 | 0.62% | |
| Bounds | |||
| Economic Maximum KWh Consumed | 16,078,047,165 | -7.49% | |
| Technical Minimum KWh Consumed | 9,897,425,252 | 2.63% | |
Year-to-Date Sustainability Performance
Apart from the changes in monthly performance, numbers on the current year to date (YTD) performance are found in the following table.
| Description | YTD Current | YTD Previous | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mining Revenue | For 2023 | For 2022 | numbers up to August |
| Average Bitcoin Price | $26,365 | $34,537 | -23.66% |
| Average Price Volatility | 34.66% | 53.28% | -34.95% |
| Mining Revenue from Fees | $258,165,623 | $105,716,268 | 144.21% |
| Mining Revenue from Blocks Mined | $5,889,663,635 | $7,680,781,287 | -23.32% |
| Total Mining Revenue | $6,147,829,258 | $7,786,497,556 | -21.04% |
| Mining Costs | |||
| Total Costs of Mining | $2,986,072,410 | $6,064,240,726 | -50.76% |
| Percentage of Total Revenue | 48.57% | 77.88% | -37.63% |
| Total KWh Consumed | 64,730,854,957 | 121,284,814,517 | -46.63% |
| Network Statistics | |||
| Total Transactions Processed | 92,923,774 | 61,268,994 | 51.67% |
| Average KWh Consumed per TX | 697 | 1,980 | -64.80% |
| Average Fee per Transaction | $2.78 | $1.73 | 60.69% |
| Energy cost per TX (at 5 cents per KWh) | $34.85 | $99.00 | -64.80% |
| Average Network Hashrate (GH/s) | 342,898,257,104 | 204,173,835,430 | 67.94% |
| Average Network Effciency (J/GH) | 0.03 | 0.10 | -68.20% |
| Bounds | |||
| Economic Maximum KWh Consumed | 122,956,585,151 | 155,729,951,113 | -21.04% |
| Technical Minimum KWh Consumed | 97,525,770,113 | 61,119,746,569 | 59.57% |
Annual Performance
Year-end performance is available in the table below as of 2017 (the year in which the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index was launched).
| Description | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mining Revenue | |||||
| Average Bitcoin Price | $47,431 | $11,054 | $8,472 | $7,559 | $4,375 |
| Average Price Volatility | 63.31% | 47.35% | 59.07% | 64.38% | 66.78% |
| Mining Revenue from Fees | $957,308,712 | $151,123,924 | $146,041,838 | $291,320,194 | $541,679,741 |
| Mining Revenue from Blocks Mined | $15,688,420,845 | $4,647,830,236 | $4,539,781,369 | $5,854,222,152 | $2,911,553,352 |
| Total Mining Revenue | $16,645,729,556 | $4,798,954,159 | $4,685,823,207 | $6,145,542,346 | $3,453,233,093 |
| Mining Costs | |||||
| Total Costs of Mining | $6,700,770,948 | $3,543,503,205 | $2,628,628,083 | $3,117,068,023 | $776,532,329 |
| Percentage of Total Revenue | 40.26% | 73.84% | 56.10% | 50.72% | 22.49% |
| Total KWh Consumed | 134,015,418,967 | 70,870,064,105 | 52,572,561,653 | 62,349,831,163 | 15,530,646,590 |
| Network Statistics | |||||
| Total Transactions Processed | 96,670,416 | 113,017,715 | 93,410,284 | 81,147,382 | 92,167,146 |
| Average KWh Consumed per TX | 1,386 | 627 | 563 | 768 | 169 |
| Average Fee per Transaction | $9.90 | $1.34 | $1.56 | $3.59 | $5.88 |
| Energy cost per TX (at 5 cents per KWh) | $69.30 | $31.35 | $28.15 | $38.40 | $8.45 |
| Average Network Hashrate (GH/s) | 146,947,345,705 | 118,556,161,320 | 73,060,732,053 | 39,983,103,533 | 7,288,177,479 |
| Average Network Effciency (J/GH) | 0.10 | 0.07 | 0.08 | 0.18 | 0.24 |
| Bounds | |||||
| Economic Maximum KWh Consumed | 332,914,591,130 | 95,979,083,186 | 93,716,464,141 | 122,910,846,910 | 69,064,661,866 |
| Technical Minimum KWh Consumed | 45,695,619,584 | 49,134,536,668 | 43,970,936,234 | 40,416,917,349 | 7,365,382,998 |
