Cambridge University has unveiled a significant update to its Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) after three years, leading to a substantial revision.
Cambridge University Presented An Updated Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index
Cambridge University has unveiled a significant update to its Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) after three years, leading to a substantial revision in its estimates of Bitcoin's global energy consumption by miners.
The revised findings indicate that previous estimates of Bitcoin's energy usage were greatly overstated. In particular, the CBECI model for 2021 originally estimated Bitcoin's electricity consumption at 104 terawatt-hours (TWh), but the revised estimate stands at 89.0 TWh, marking a significant reduction. A terawatt-hour (TWh) is equivalent to one trillion watts of energy output for one hour.
Similarly, the 2022 estimate was adjusted down by 9.8 TWh, from 105.3 TWh to 95.5 TWh. This places Bitcoin's electricity consumption for that year on par with U.S. tumble dryers at 108 TWh.
The university's previous method assumed that any "profitable" hardware type introduced over the previous five years contributed equally to the network's hashrate. However, after China's mining restriction in 2021, the method started displaying its drawbacks.
Alexander Neumueller, the author of the report, explained that the overestimation was due to not accounting for the increasing efficiency and power of Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) hardware devices used for mining.
While Cambridge's updated methodology incorporated recent hardware mining deliveries, Neumueller acknowledged that certain assumptions and simplifications still applied.
Nevertheless, Cambridge's updated index offers a more accurate understanding of Bitcoin's energy consumption, with the current estimate for 2023 at 70.4 TWh, according to the university.
