Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: how much does it cost to "produce" 1 BTC currently? and how much power is used?
by
dio
on 17/05/2011, 12:03:48 UTC

If 160 Watts will (on average) generate one bitcoin each 24 hours, then the creation of each bitcoin uses 3.84 kW-h (0.16 * 24) or 13.824 Megajoules. That's about a dollar's worth of electricity where I live.

The target is for 7200 new bitcoins to be mined each day, which would require 27.648 MW-h (Megawatt-hours) or 99532.8 Megajoules (which is approximately 100 Gigajoules).

At the target of 7200 coins per day, the power consumption of the Bitcoin network would therefore be 1.152 Megawatts (i.e. 7200 times 160 watts).

At the moment the Bitcoin network is running about 60% above the target generation rate, so the total power consumption would be proportionally higher.

thanks! so one could assume that at 160% it consumes about 1.85 Megawatts continuously?