Bitcoins energy consumption is related to the USD value of bitcoins mined every day, not the value of each individual bitcoin. Consider the extreme case: Tomor

Bitcoins energy consumption is related to the USD value of bitcoins mined every day, not the value of each individual bitcoin. Consider the extreme case: Tomorrow, the block reward changes such that only one bitcoin is mined a day @ $600/coin. The hashrate would definitely drop in that case, even though the price stayed the same! > The last couple of halvings appeared to have little effect on the global hashrate, and so had little effect on the energy consumption. True, but the system was not at equilibrium--the cost to mine a bitcoin had not yet approached the value gained from selling one, so after the halving most miners were profitable, and the hashrate stayed the same.