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 November 2021 | ||
| Average Bitcoin Price | $60,653 | 5.06% |  |
| Average Price Volatility | 43.72% | -19.81% |  |
| Mining Revenue from Fees | $24,508,939 | -3.92% | |
| Mining Revenue from Blocks Mined | $1,725,546,497 | 2.76% | |
| Total Mining Revenue | $1,750,055,436 | 2.66% | |
| Mining Costs | |||
| Total Costs of Mining | $793,453,502 | 6.20% | |
| Percentage of Total Revenue | 45.34% | 3.45% | |
| Total KWh Consumed | 15,869,070,040 | 6.20% | |
| Network Statistics | |||
| Total Transactions Processed | 8,239,399 | 3.94% |  |
| Average KWh Consumed per TX | 1,926 | 2.18% | |
| Average Fee per Transaction | $2.97 | -7.76% | |
| Energy cost per TX (at 5 cents per KWh) | $96.30 | 2.18% | |
| Average Network Hashrate (GH/s) | 161,853,771,011 | 8.92% | |
| Average Network Effciency (J/GH) | 0.14 | 0.74% | |
| Bounds | |||
| Economic Maximum KWh Consumed | 35,001,108,728 | 2.66% | |
| Technical Minimum KWh Consumed | 4,017,689,513 | 5.42% | |
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 November |
| Average Bitcoin Price | $47,246 | $10,060 | 369.64% |
| Average Price Volatility | 63.68% | 45.91% | 38.71% |
| Mining Revenue from Fees | $938,049,293 | $91,022,722 | 930.57% |
| Mining Revenue from Blocks Mined | $14,260,666,452 | $4,038,504,103 | 253.12% |
| Total Mining Revenue | $15,198,715,745 | $4,129,526,825 | 268.05% |
| Mining Costs | |||
| Total Costs of Mining | $5,842,164,888 | $3,213,195,314 | 81.82% |
| Percentage of Total Revenue | 38.44% | 77.81% | -50.60% |
| Total KWh Consumed | 116,843,297,763 | 64,263,906,289 | 81.82% |
| Network Statistics | |||
| Total Transactions Processed | 88,533,065 | 103,363,442 | -14.35% |
| Average KWh Consumed per TX | 1,320 | 622 | 112.22% |
| Average Fee per Transaction | $10.60 | $0.88 | 1104.55% |
| Energy cost per TX (at 5 cents per KWh) | $66.00 | $31.10 | 112.22% |
| Average Network Hashrate (GH/s) | 144,614,493,419 | 117,111,758,437 | 23.48% |
| Average Network Effciency (J/GH) | 0.10 | 0.07 | 47.15% |
| Bounds | |||
| Economic Maximum KWh Consumed | 303,974,314,893 | 82,590,536,506 | 268.05% |
| Technical Minimum KWh Consumed | 45,158,382,571 | 49,201,067,410 | -8.22% |
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 |
