Bitcoin Sustainability Report October 2017

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.

October Highlights

October was a strong month for Bitcoin, boosted by the announcement that CME would be launching Bitcoin futures. The highlights of the past month are as follows:

  • Mining revenues increased by 29 percent.
  • Mining revenue from transaction fees increased by 26 percent.
  • The average fee per single transaction was $3.23.
  • The total network power consumption increased by almost 28 percent.
  • The average energy consumption per transaction was up by around 6 percent, and amounts to 203 KWh per unique transaction (enough to power 1 U.S. household for almost 7 days).

The full report is featured below:

Description Value Monthly change Trend
Mining Revenue
Total Blocks Mined 4,829 -0.81%
Average Bitcoin Price $5,309 28.83%
Average Price Volatility 64.74% -0.96%
Mining Revenue from Fees $28,826,925 26.25%
Mining Revenue from Blocks Mined $334,709,841 29.26%
Total Mining Revenue $363,536,766 29.02%
Mining Costs
Total Costs of Mining $90,501,466 27.60%
Percentage of Total Revenue 24.89% -1.10%
Total KWh Consumed 1,810,029,316 27.60%
Network Power Consumption (GW) 2.43 23.49%
Network Statistics
Total Transactions Processed 8,928,143 20.28%
Average KWh Consumed per TX 203 6.28%
Average Fee per Transaction $3.23 4.87%
Energy cost per TX (at 5 cents per KWh) $10.15 6.28%
Average Network Hashrate (GH/s) 10,615,506,803 18.35%
Average Network Effciency (J/GH) 0.23 4.37%
Bounds
Economic Maximum KWh Consumed 7,270,735,311 29.02%
Technical Minimum KWh Consumed 789,716,106 22.26%
Maximum Power Consumption (GW) 9.77 24.78%
Minimum Power Consumption (GW) 1.06 17.78%

Year to Date Performance

Apart from the changes in monthly performance, numbers on the current year to date (YTD) performance are found in the following table. These numbers show that Bitcoin has so far consumed as much energy as Paraguay or Uruguay consume over a full year, with two more months to go until the end of the year.

It should be noted that the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index wasn’t officially launched until February 10, 2017. For this reason, the year to date performance is measured as of this date.

Description Value Oct vs. YTD
Mining Revenue
Total Blocks Mined 40,087 12.05%
Average Bitcoin Price $2,714 195.62%
Average Price Volatility 62.09% 104.27%
Mining Revenue from Fees $176,381,999 16.34%
Mining Revenue from Blocks Mined $1,395,170,245 23.99%
Total Mining Revenue $1,571,552,244 23.13%
Mining Costs
Total Costs of Mining $516,325,620 17.53%
Percentage of Total Revenue 32.85% 75.77%
Total KWh Consumed 10,326,512,399 17.53%
Network Power Consumption (GW) 1.64 148.71%
Network Statistics
Total Transactions Processed 71,982,505 12.40%
Average KWh Consumed per TX 143 141.96%
Average Fee per Transaction $2.45 131.84%
Energy cost per TX (at 5 cents per KWh) $7.15 141.96%
Average Network Hashrate (GH/s) 5,901,221,917 179.89%
Average Network Effciency (J/GH) 0.28 82.68%
Bounds
Economic Maximum KWh Consumed 31,431,044,870 23.13%
Technical Minimum KWh Consumed 3,725,293,073 21.20%

For a daily estimate of Bitcoin’s energy consumption make sure to visit the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index.

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