{"id":718,"slug":"how-much-energy-does-blockchain-use","question":"How much energy does blockchain use?","intent":"informational","language":"en","url":"https://worldwiki.io/q/how-much-energy-does-blockchain-use","entity":{"slug":"blockchain","name":"Blockchain","url":"https://worldwiki.io/entity/blockchain"},"answer":{"short_answer":"It depends on the consensus mechanism. Proof-of-work chains use a lot of electricity. The University of Cambridge's revised estimate put Bitcoin's use at 95.5 TWh in 2022. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated that crypto mining made up 0.6% to 2.3% of U.S. electricity consumption. Proof-of-stake chains use far less. Ethereum's energy consumption fell by an estimated 99.95% when it switched to proof of stake in September 2022.","detailed_answer":"<p>Figures come from Cambridge <span class=\"ref\">[12]</span>, the EIA  and ethereum.org <span class=\"ref\">[8]</span>. Estimates change with hardware, prices and the method used.</p>","format":"paragraph","confidence":75,"verified_at":"2026-09-18 07:10:23","updated_at":"2026-09-18 16:10:23"},"sources":[{"id":153,"title":"IR 8202, Blockchain Technology Overview","url":"https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/ir/8202/final","publisher":"National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)","type":"government","accessed_at":"2026-09-18 18:01:11"},{"id":154,"title":"Glossary: permissioned","url":"https://csrc.nist.gov/glossary/term/permissioned","publisher":"NIST Computer Security Resource Center","type":"government","accessed_at":"2026-09-18 18:01:11"},{"id":155,"title":"Glossary: permissionless","url":"https://csrc.nist.gov/glossary/term/permissionless","publisher":"NIST Computer Security Resource Center","type":"government","accessed_at":"2026-09-18 18:01:12"},{"id":156,"title":"Glossary: smart contract","url":"https://csrc.nist.gov/glossary/term/smart_contract","publisher":"NIST Computer Security Resource Center","type":"government","accessed_at":"2026-09-18 18:01:13"},{"id":157,"title":"Block Chain — Bitcoin Developer Guide","url":"https://developer.bitcoin.org/devguide/block_chain.html","publisher":"Bitcoin Project (developer.bitcoin.org)","type":"official","accessed_at":"2026-09-18 18:01:13"},{"id":158,"title":"The story of Satoshi Nakamoto and the 1 million bitcoins","url":"https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/cef/items/663083/de-","publisher":"European Commission, CEF Newsroom","type":"government","accessed_at":"2026-09-18 18:01:17"},{"id":159,"title":"Stuart Haber","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Haber","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"other","accessed_at":"2026-09-18 18:01:17"},{"id":160,"title":"The Merge","url":"https://ethereum.org/roadmap/merge/","publisher":"ethereum.org","type":"official","accessed_at":"2026-09-18 18:01:18"},{"id":161,"title":"Proof-of-stake (PoS)","url":"https://ethereum.org/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos/","publisher":"ethereum.org","type":"official","accessed_at":"2026-09-18 18:01:20"},{"id":162,"title":"Blocks","url":"https://ethereum.org/developers/docs/blocks/","publisher":"ethereum.org","type":"official","accessed_at":"2026-09-18 18:01:21"},{"id":163,"title":"Introduction — What is Hyperledger Fabric?","url":"https://hyperledger-fabric.readthedocs.io/en/latest/whatis.html","publisher":"Hyperledger Foundation (Linux Foundation)","type":"official","accessed_at":"2026-09-18 18:01:21"},{"id":164,"title":"Bitcoin electricity consumption: an improved assessment","url":"https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/2023/bitcoin-electricity-consumption/","publisher":"Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge","type":"academic","accessed_at":"2026-09-18 18:01:23"}],"published_at":"2026-09-18 07:10:23"}