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 unsustainability of the proof-of-work algorithm. The sustainability report uses historical data from the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index to summarize the sustainability progress and performance of the Bitcoin protocol over the past month.
January Highlights
January must have been a disappointing month for Bitcoin miners. Both the Bitcoin price and income from transaction fees decreased during this month. In particular, the number of processed transactions dropped significantly this month. Even so, mining is still extremely profitable, and a record amount of new mining machines was added to the network. The highlights of the past month are as follows:
- Mining revenues decreased by 14 percent.
- Mining revenue from transaction fees decreased by 28 percent.
- The total number of processed transactions decreased by 20 percent.
- The average fee per single transaction was $23.54.
- The total network power consumption increased by almost 22 percent.
- Due to a record amount of new machines added to the network the minimum total network power consumption even increased by 34 percent.
- The average energy consumption per transaction was up by around 53 percent, and amounts to 397 KWh per unique transaction (enough to power 1 U.S. household for more than 13 days).
The full report is featured below:
| Description | Value | Monthly change | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mining Revenue | |||
| Total Blocks Mined | 5,065 | 0.72% |  |
| Average Bitcoin Price | $13,053 | -13.82% |  |
| Average Price Volatility | 117.63% | 14.93% | |
| Mining Revenue from Fees | $210,743,155 | -27.79% | |
| Mining Revenue from Blocks Mined | $913,123,598 | -9.98% | |
| Total Mining Revenue | $1,123,866,753 | -13.96% | |
| Mining Costs | |||
| Total Costs of Mining | $177,591,836 | 21.70% | |
| Percentage of Total Revenue | 15.80% | 41.44% | |
| Total KWh Consumed | 3,551,836,714 | 21.70% | |
| Network Statistics | |||
| Total Transactions Processed | 8,953,239 | -20.44% |  |
| Average KWh Consumed per TX | 397 | 53.28% | |
| Average Fee per Transaction | $23.54 | -9.22% | |
| Energy cost per TX (at 5 cents per KWh) | $19.85 | 53.28% | |
| Average Network Hashrate (GH/s) | 19,378,131,686 | 34.07% | |
| Average Network Effciency (J/GH) | 0.25 | -9.21% | |
| Bounds | |||
| Economic Maximum KWh Consumed | 22,477,335,065 | -13.96% | |
| Technical Minimum KWh Consumed | 1,441,492,173 | 34.05% | |
For a daily estimate of Bitcoin’s energy consumption make sure to visit the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index.
