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.
December Highlights
Now that December has ended, we can get a full picture of how Bitcoin has performed over the past year in terms of sustainability. December itself was far from a boring month, and many records were broken. The highlights of the past month are as follows:
- Mining revenues increased by 127 percent.
- Mining revenue from transaction fees increased by 297 percent.
- The average fee per single transaction was $25.93.
- The total network power consumption increased by almost 28 percent.
- The average energy consumption per transaction was up by around 1 percent, and amounts to 259 KWh per unique transaction (enough to power 1 U.S. household for more than 8 days).
The full report is featured below:
| Description | Value | Monthly change | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mining Revenue | |||
| Total Blocks Mined | 5,029 | 15.37% |  |
| Average Bitcoin Price | $15,146 | 94.01% | |
| Average Price Volatility | 102.35% | 50.05% | |
| Mining Revenue from Fees | $291,846,659 | 297.33% | |
| Mining Revenue from Blocks Mined | $1,014,330,837 | 102.04% | |
| Total Mining Revenue | $1,306,177,495 | 126.96% | |
| Mining Costs | |||
| Total Costs of Mining | $145,924,317 | 27.69% | |
| Percentage of Total Revenue | 11.17% | -43.74% |  |
| Total KWh Consumed | 2,918,486,344 | 27.69% | |
| Network Statistics | |||
| Total Transactions Processed | 11,253,684 | 26.01% |  |
| Average KWh Consumed per TX | 259 | 1.17% | |
| Average Fee per Transaction | $25.93 | 215.45% | |
| Energy cost per TX (at 5 cents per KWh) | $12.95 | 1.17% | |
| Average Network Hashrate (GH/s) | 14,453,842,876 | 20.63% | |
| Average Network Effciency (J/GH) | 0.27 | 2.45% | |
| Bounds | |||
| Economic Maximum KWh Consumed | 26,123,549,905 | 126.96% | |
| Technical Minimum KWh Consumed | 1,075,345,005 | 24.63% | |
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 consumed as much energy as the Dominican Republic consumes over a full 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 | Dec vs. YTD |
|---|---|---|
| Mining Revenue | ||
| Total Blocks Mined | 49,475 | 10.16% |
| Average Bitcoin Price | $4,375 | 346.19% |
| Average Price Volatility | 66.78% | 153.26% |
| Mining Revenue from Fees | $541,679,741 | 53.88% |
| Mining Revenue from Blocks Mined | $2,911,553,352 | 34.84% |
| Total Mining Revenue | $3,453,233,093 | 37.82% |
| Mining Costs | ||
| Total Costs of Mining | $776,532,329 | 18.79% |
| Percentage of Total Revenue | 22.49% | 49.68% |
| Total KWh Consumed | 15,530,646,590 | 18.79% |
| Network Statistics | ||
| Total Transactions Processed | 92,167,146 | 12.21% |
| Average KWh Consumed per TX | 169 | 153.25% |
| Average Fee per Transaction | $5.88 | 440.99% |
| Energy cost per TX (at 5 cents per KWh) | $8.45 | 153.25% |
| Average Network Hashrate (GH/s) | 7,282,524,701 | 198.47% |
| Average Network Effciency (J/GH) | 0.27 | 98.94% |
| Bounds | ||
| Economic Maximum KWh Consumed | 69,064,661,866 | 37.82% |
| Technical Minimum KWh Consumed | 5,661,920,011 | 18.99% |
For a daily estimate of Bitcoin’s energy consumption make sure to visit the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index.
