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 2024 | ||
| Average Bitcoin Price | $60,031 | -4.32% |  |
| Average Price Volatility | 49.52% | 39.61% |  |
| Mining Revenue from Fees | $20,636,690 | -15.33% | |
| Mining Revenue from Blocks Mined | $816,792,694 | 2.50% | |
| Total Mining Revenue | $837,429,383 | 1.97% | |
| Mining Costs | |||
| Total Costs of Mining | $731,531,462 | 0.04% | |
| Percentage of Total Revenue | 87.35% | -1.90% | |
| Total KWh Consumed | 9,050,783,782 | -37.15% | |
| Network Statistics | |||
| Total Transactions Processed | 18,445,306 | -5.35% |  |
| Average KWh Consumed per TX | 491 | -33.56% | |
| Average Fee per Transaction | $1.12 | -10.40% | |
| Energy cost per TX (at 5 cents per KWh) | $24.55 | -33.56% | |
| Average Network Hashrate (GH/s) | 580,585,322,581 | -5.70% | |
| Average Network Effciency (J/GH) | 0.02 | -33.12% | |
| Bounds | |||
| Economic Maximum KWh Consumed | 16,748,587,663 | 1.97% | |
| Technical Minimum KWh Consumed | 8,415,073,969 | -6.03% | |
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 2024 | For 2023 | numbers up to August |
| Average Bitcoin Price | $60,031 | $26,365 | 127.69% |
| Average Price Volatility | 38.55% | 34.66% | 11.22% |
| Mining Revenue from Fees | $752,884,195 | $258,165,623 | 191.63% |
| Mining Revenue from Blocks Mined | $9,393,871,916 | $5,889,663,635 | 59.50% |
| Total Mining Revenue | $10,146,756,111 | $6,147,829,258 | 65.05% |
| Mining Costs | |||
| Total Costs of Mining | $5,337,548,965 | $2,986,072,410 | 78.75% |
| Percentage of Total Revenue | 52.60% | 48.57% | 8.30% |
| Total KWh Consumed | 101,180,696,190 | 64,730,854,957 | 56.31% |
| Network Statistics | |||
| Total Transactions Processed | 120,013,768 | 92,923,774 | 29.15% |
| Average KWh Consumed per TX | 843 | 697 | 20.95% |
| Average Fee per Transaction | $6.27 | $2.78 | 125.54% |
| Energy cost per TX (at 5 cents per KWh) | $42.15 | $34.85 | 20.95% |
| Average Network Hashrate (GH/s) | 592,860,773,532 | 342,898,257,104 | 72.90% |
| Average Network Effciency (J/GH) | 0.03 | 0.03 | -9.63% |
| Bounds | |||
| Economic Maximum KWh Consumed | 202,935,122,224 | 122,956,585,151 | 65.05% |
| Technical Minimum KWh Consumed | 98,287,573,832 | 97,525,770,113 | 0.78% |
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 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mining Revenue | |||||||
| Average Bitcoin Price | $28,848 | $29,182 | $47,431 | $11,054 | $8,472 | $7,559 | $4,375 |
| Average Price Volatility | 32.67% | 48.86% | 63.31% | 47.35% | 59.07% | 64.38% | 66.78% |
| Mining Revenue from Fees | $768,722,506 | $142,246,658 | $957,308,712 | $151,123,924 | $146,041,838 | $291,320,194 | $541,679,741 |
| Mining Revenue from Blocks Mined | $9,674,805,663 | $9,752,890,417 | $15,688,420,845 | $4,647,830,236 | $4,539,781,369 | $5,854,222,152 | $2,911,553,352 |
| Total Mining Revenue | $10,443,528,170 | $9,895,137,075 | $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 | $5,164,057,627 | $8,057,844,192 | $6,700,770,948 | $3,543,503,205 | $2,628,628,083 | $3,117,068,023 | $776,532,329 |
| Percentage of Total Revenue | 49.45% | 81.43% | 40.26% | 73.84% | 56.10% | 50.72% | 22.49% |
| Total KWh Consumed | 108,591,297,292 | 161,243,016,125 | 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 | 151,476,461 | 92,770,752 | 96,670,416 | 113,017,715 | 93,410,284 | 81,147,382 | 92,167,146 |
| Average KWh Consumed per TX | 717 | 1,738 | 1,386 | 627 | 563 | 768 | 169 |
| Average Fee per Transaction | $5.07 | $1.53 | $9.90 | $1.34 | $1.56 | $3.59 | $5.88 |
| Energy cost per TX (at 5 cents per KWh) | $35.85 | $86.90 | $69.30 | $31.35 | $28.15 | $38.40 | $8.45 |
| Average Network Hashrate (GH/s) | 380,585,145,964 | 218,858,998,475 | 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) | 0.03 | 0.08 | 0.10 | 0.07 | 0.08 | 0.18 | 0.24 |
| Bounds | |||||||
| Economic Maximum KWh Consumed | 208,870,563,395 | 197,902,741,492 | 332,914,591,130 | 95,979,083,186 | 93,716,464,141 | 122,910,846,910 | 69,064,661,866 |
| Technical Minimum KWh Consumed | 107,288,660,856 | 65,055,230,269 | 45,695,619,584 | 49,134,536,668 | 43,970,936,234 | 40,416,917,349 | 7,365,382,998 |
