Blockchain Energy Consumption Index

The cambridge bitcoin electricity consumption index cbeci provides a real time estimate of the total electricity consumption of the bitcoin network.

Blockchain energy consumption index.

The average yearly energy consumption of the bitcoin network exceeds that of the entire nation of switzerland. Making cryptocurrencies less energy hungry will mean reengineering how blockchains work. Blockchains use massive amounts of energy but there s a plan to fix that. New study quantifies bitcoin s ludicrous energy consumption bitcoin could consume 7 7 gigawatts by the end of 2018.

Oecd blockchain primer power consumption and energy footprint. In the world of sustainability it s being considered for applications from energy trading schemes to supply chain transparency to food safety however as people envision hope filled plans for how it could change the world they often overlook blockchain s non sustainable energy consumption. The bitcoin energy consumption index provides the latest estimate of the total energy consumption of the bitcoin network. The cbeci is maintained by the cambridge centre for alternative finance ccaf at judge business school university of cambridge.

The bitcoin energy consumption index provides updated footprint calculations for the cryptocurrency. These key assumptions have been criticised to overestimate electricity consumption. Prior to the launch of bitcoin energy consumption index energy consumption estimates for bitcoin typically included assumptions on what number of machines were still active and how these machines were distributed. By far the most frequently cited estimate in news media is the bitcoin energy consumption index beci which uses a top down approach that assumes miners spend on average 60 of their revenues on electricity at a rate of 0 05 usd kwh.

Cbeci it means bitcoin accounts for roughly 0 25 percent of the world s. This allowed statistics websites to arrive at a certain number of watts consumed per gigash per second gh s. Lee may 17 2018 1 23 pm utc. Bitcoin mining uses the same amount of electricity consumed by countries like chile or austria about 77 terawatt hour twh annually.

A legitimate cause for concern in the use of public blockchains is the significant environmental impact from the energy consumption required. One estimation is that bitcoin alone consumes 57 8 twh each year close to the annual energy consumption of algeria compared to a global banking network with similar capabilities but centrally controlled this is a vastly higher energy requirement.