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 2021 | ||
| Average Bitcoin Price | $45,595 | 33.06% |  |
| Average Price Volatility | 56.52% | -11.95% |  |
| Mining Revenue from Fees | $16,394,959 | -35.80% | |
| Mining Revenue from Blocks Mined | $1,196,813,255 | 36.53% | |
| Total Mining Revenue | $1,213,208,214 | 34.48% | |
| Mining Costs | |||
| Total Costs of Mining | $631,533,554 | 9.17% | |
| Percentage of Total Revenue | 52.05% | -18.83% | |
| Total KWh Consumed | 12,630,671,078 | 9.17% | |
| Network Statistics | |||
| Total Transactions Processed | 6,941,827 | 4.33% |  |
| Average KWh Consumed per TX | 1,820 | 4.66% | |
| Average Fee per Transaction | $2.36 | -38.54% | |
| Energy cost per TX (at 5 cents per KWh) | $91.00 | 4.66% | |
| Average Network Hashrate (GH/s) | 120,222,349,479 | 22.80% | |
| Average Network Effciency (J/GH) | 0.14 | -11.14% | |
| Bounds | |||
| Economic Maximum KWh Consumed | 24,264,164,272 | 34.48% | |
| Technical Minimum KWh Consumed | 3,084,563,612 | 22.85% | |
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 2021 | For 2020 | numbers up to August |
| Average Bitcoin Price | $44,403 | $8,987 | 394.08% |
| Average Price Volatility | 69.35% | 50.02% | 38.64% |
| Mining Revenue from Fees | $869,122,561 | $221 | 393126017.22% |
| Mining Revenue from Blocks Mined | $9,641,823,980 | $2,970,795,194 | 224.55% |
| Total Mining Revenue | $10,510,946,541 | $2,970,795,415 | 253.81% |
| Mining Costs | |||
| Total Costs of Mining | $3,635,851,861 | $2,298,751,931 | 58.17% |
| Percentage of Total Revenue | 34.59% | 77.38% | -55.30% |
| Total KWh Consumed | 72,717,037,210 | 45,975,038,619 | 58.17% |
| Network Statistics | |||
| Total Transactions Processed | 64,772,444 | 75,382,591 | -14.08% |
| Average KWh Consumed per TX | 1,123 | 610 | 84.10% |
| Average Fee per Transaction | $13.42 | $0.00 | #DIV/0! |
| Energy cost per TX (at 5 cents per KWh) | $56.15 | $30.50 | 84.10% |
| Average Network Hashrate (GH/s) | 143,215,069,245 | 111,910,931,704 | 27.97% |
| Average Network Effciency (J/GH) | 0.09 | 0.07 | 23.72% |
| Bounds | |||
| Economic Maximum KWh Consumed | 210,218,930,818 | 59,415,908,305 | 253.81% |
| Technical Minimum KWh Consumed | 45,422,077,653 | 47,715,709,630 | -4.81% |
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 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mining Revenue | ||||
| Average Bitcoin Price | $11,054 | $8,472 | $7,559 | $4,375 |
| Average Price Volatility | 47.35% | 59.07% | 64.38% | 66.78% |
| Mining Revenue from Fees | $151,123,924 | $146,041,838 | $291,320,194 | $541,679,741 |
| Mining Revenue from Blocks Mined | $4,647,830,236 | $4,539,781,369 | $5,854,222,152 | $2,911,553,352 |
| Total Mining Revenue | $4,798,954,159 | $4,685,823,207 | $6,145,542,346 | $3,453,233,093 |
| Mining Costs | ||||
| Total Costs of Mining | $3,543,503,205 | $2,628,628,083 | $3,117,068,023 | $776,532,329 |
| Percentage of Total Revenue | 73.84% | 56.10% | 50.72% | 22.49% |
| Total KWh Consumed | 70,870,064,105 | 52,572,561,653 | 62,349,831,163 | 15,530,646,590 |
| Network Statistics | ||||
| Total Transactions Processed | 113,017,715 | 93,410,284 | 81,147,382 | 92,167,146 |
| Average KWh Consumed per TX | 627 | 563 | 768 | 169 |
| Average Fee per Transaction | $1.34 | $1.56 | $3.59 | $5.88 |
| Energy cost per TX (at 5 cents per KWh) | $31.35 | $28.15 | $38.40 | $8.45 |
| Average Network Hashrate (GH/s) | 118,556,161,320 | 73,060,732,053 | 39,983,103,533 | 7,288,177,479 |
| Average Network Effciency (J/GH) | 0.07 | 0.08 | 0.18 | 0.24 |
| Bounds | ||||
| Economic Maximum KWh Consumed | 95,979,083,186 | 93,716,464,141 | 122,910,846,910 | 69,064,661,866 |
| Technical Minimum KWh Consumed | 49,134,536,668 | 43,970,936,234 | 40,416,917,349 | 7,365,382,998 |
