James Stafford — How Many Barrels Of Oil Are Needed To Mine One Bitcoin?

The Bitcoin mining industry consumes 22.5 TWh of energy annually, which amounts to 13,239,916 barrels of oil equivalent. With 12.5 bitcoins being mined every 10 minutes, that means the average energy cost of one bitcoin would equate to 20 barrels of oil equivalent....

Bitcoin transactions are secured by computer miners, who are competing for rewards in the form of coins from the network. The more computation power they use, the better their chances. The drill rig is a computer, and hydraulic fracturing is done with the tip of your fingers. It’s a phenomenally energy-intensive process.

To put this in perspective, the total energy consumption of the world’s Bitcoin mining activities is more than 40 times greater than that required to power the entire Visa network....

Some, Chris Cook for example, argue that the optimal parameter for measuring economic data is energy rather than a monetary unit of account or a weight of precious metal like gold.

OilPrice.com
How Many Barrels Of Oil Are Needed To Mine One Bitcoin?

James Stafford | Editor of Oilprice.com

See also

Zero Hedge
Bill Miller Put 30% Of His Fund's Assets In Bitcoin

Tyler Durden

Joe Romm — Must-See Chart: Cost Of PV Cells Has Dropped An Amazing 99% Since 1977, Bringing Solar Power To Grid Parity

Climate Progress

Must-See Chart: Cost Of PV Cells Has Dropped An Amazing 99% Since 1977, Bringing Solar Power To Grid Parity

Joe Romm

Art Shipman — You were saying about a bubble?

Is a short run upward blip a bubble when the long run trend is declining? Is the current stagnation a return to trend instead of a lagging recovery? Is real growth in decline?

Although Art doesn't mention it, others have noticed the relationship of growth to cost of energy and energy cost has been trending up since the Seventies oil embargo. Is increasing financialization of the economy related? Something to consider?

The New Arthurian Economics

You were saying about a bubble?

Art Shipman