A partial list of articles on Bitcoin electricity use
Because of recent interest in the electricity use of Bitcoin mining, I asked my colleague Zach Schmidt to create a reasonably comprehensive list of articles and reports on this topic. As we update this list we’ll create new blog posts so that the latest version is usually at the top of the heap on Koomey.com.
Please email me if you see a new article that seems especially well written and authoritative and we’ll add it to the list. There’s precious little credible information on this topic nowadays, but I hope that will change soon. My own summary of the key issues is still in process, but hopefully this list of articles will be of use in the meantime.
The most credible academic estimates are at the bottom of this post. Not surprisingly, the news articles are by far the majority of writing on this topic.
General Bitcoin News Articles/Web sites
January 10, 2018. It Is Silly Season in the Land of Cryptocurrency. The Atlantic.
Bitcoin Energy News Articles/Web sites
April 12, 2013. Virtual Bitcoin Mining Is a Real-World Environmental Disaster. Bloomberg.
June 29, 2015. Bitcoin Is Unsustainable. MOTHERBOARD.
October 5, 2015. Bitcoins are a waste of energy – literally.abc.net.au.
January 1, 2017. Bitcoin and Energy Consumption; An Unsustainable Protocol That Must Evolve. LinkedIn.
January 7, 2017. Proof of Work Flaws: Ethereum Lays Out Proof of Stake Philosphy. BTCMANAGER.com.
March 7, 2017. A Single Bitcoin Transaction Takes Thousands of Times More Energy Than a Credit Card Swipe. MOTHERBOARD.
March 15, 2017. How Much Energy Does Bitcoin Use? A Lot It Turns Out. SecurityGladiators.
March 30, 2017. Bitcoin Doesn’t Waste Electricity. Hackernoon.
May 16, 2017. The bitcoin and blockchain: energy hogs. The Conversation.
August 20, 2017. China’s Bitmain dominates bitcoin mining. Now it wants to cash in on artificial intelligence. Quartz.
September 28, 2017. The Ridiculous Amount of Energy It Takes to Run Bitcoin. IEEE Spectrum.
October 4, 2017. Why the Biggest Bitcoin Mines Are in China. IEEE Spectrum.
October 5, 2017. How Much Power Does the Bitcoin Network Use?. The Balance.
October 16, 2017. The electricity required for a single Bitcoin trade could power a house for a whole month. World Economic Forum.
October 25, 2017. A Deep Dive in a Real-World Bitcoin Mine. Digiconomist.
October 27, 2017. How Many Barrels Of Oil Are Needed To Mine One Bitcoin?. Huffington Post.
November 9, 2017. Bitcoin’s Exorbitant Energy Costs May Prove to Be Biggest Risk. Bloomberg.
November 15, 2017. “Ludicrous” – Analysts Debate How Much Power Is Consumed per Bitcoin Transaction. Bitcoin.com.
November 24, 2017. Will Bitcoin Consume All The World’s Current Electricity Production By Feb 2020?. Zero Hedge.
November 27, 2017. Bitcoin mining consumes more energy than 159 countries. CBS News.
November 27, 2017. Bitcoin mining consumes more energy a year than Ireland. The Guardian.
December 5 2017. Bitcoin could cost us our clean energy future. Grist.
December 6, 2017. Bitcoin’s insane energy consumption, explained. Ars Technica.
December 7, 2017. Bitcoin Mining Operations Now Use More Energy Than Ireland. Greentech Media.
December 7, 2017. No, Bitcoin Won’t Boil the Oceans. Bloomberg.
December 8, 2017. Bitcoin Mining Outranks Entire Countries in Energy Consumption. BTCMANAGER.com.
December 11, 2017. Bitcoin Mining On Track To Consume All Of The World’s Energy By 2020. Newsweek.
December 13, 2017. Bitcoin energy boom stamps down colossal carbon footprint. Deutsche Welle.
December 14, 2017. Coal Is Fueling Bitcoin’s Meteoric Rise. Bloomberg.
December 15, 2017. The Hard Math Behind Bitcoin’s Global Warming Problem. WIRED.
December 15, 2017. Five myths about bitcoin. The Washington Post.
December 19, 2017. Why the bitcoin craze is using up so much energy. The Washington Post.
December 20, 2017. Bitcoin’s sky-rocketing energy use is a viral story. We checked the math. Public Radio International.
December 21, 2017. No, bitcoin isn’t likely to consume all the world’s electricity in 2020. CNBC.
December 21, 2017. 5 Best States For Bitcoin Mining (and the Worst). Investopedia.
December 30, 2017. THE BITCOIN CRAZE IS USING UP SO MUCH ENERGY. Independent.
January 3, 2018. China Takes Aim At Bitcoin Mining; These 2 Cryptocurrencies Soar. Investor’s Business Daily.
January 4, 2018. Can We Prevent a Global Energy Crisis From Bitcoin Mining?. Greentech Media.
January 4, 2018. Bitcoin’s Cheap Energy Feast Is Ending. Bloomberg.
January 6, 2018. The secret lives of students who mine cryptocurrency in their dorm rooms. Quartz.
January 8, 2018. Bitcoins Should Be Called BTUcoins, and That’s a Problem. Energy Institute Blog.
Technical Estimates
March, 2015. A Cost of Production Model for Bitcoin. The New School for Social Research.
March 29, 2016. Bitcoin Could Consume as Much Electricity as Denmark by 2020. MOTHERBOARD.
June 28, 2016. The Fair Cost of Bitcoin Proof of Work. Social Science Research Network.
March 10, 2017. Electricity consumption of Bitcoin: a market-based and technical analysis. mrb’s blog.
April 17, 2017. Bitcoin Electricity Consumption: An Economic Approach. Digiconomist.
December 9, 2017. The Power Consumption of the Bitcoin Network: Are we destroying the planet?. Google Docs.
Research Reports/Articles
June 26, 2014. Bitcoin Mining and its Energy Footprint. karlodwyer.com.
May 29, 2017. Sustainability of bitcoin and blockchains. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability.
