4 ms·

Per transaction is intentionally a bit misleading, as the amount of power usage is proportional to how-much-power the block-reward can buy regardless of there b

Per transaction is intentionally a bit misleading, as the amount of power usage is proportional to how-much-power the block-reward can buy regardless of there being 1 or 1 million transactions. Not to mention, a single transaction can power an infinite amount of (wash) transactions thanks to 2nd layer stuff like the lightning network. So it'd be similarly misleading to try quote in terms of that. So the correct unit would be power usage, per block or time unit.

mdavidn 7y ago
The average number of transactions per block is easy to measure historically. If each block takes 10 minutes, and the miner network indeed draws 73 TWh each year, then that works out to ~1.4 GWh per block.
baroffoos 7y ago
The bitcoin network has a limited number of transactions per second that it can process (Limited by block size). Last time I checked the network was basically at the limit so per transaction is not an insane way of looking at it. I get what you mean, if you decide not to make a transaction, the energy still gets spent but the more you use bitcoin the more valuable it becomes which incentivizes miners to keep mining. Also someone elses transaction will just slot in to fill the gap left since there is a very limited amount of space for transactions which is always fully utilized.
- optimiz3 7y ago
  Nowhere near the limit, and hasn't been for a while: https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#0,24h https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#0,24h
- jimmydorry 7y ago
  Not exactly. Second layer transactions sit on top, so the hard max of 4200 "settlements"[1] in a block does not necessarily mean 4200 transactions. With enough people using the second layer network, each "settlement" could mean finalising hundreds of transactions for thousands of people. This second layer network acts like a caching layer, and consolidates many transactions into a single transaction (put into very simple terms). [1] Combinations of inputs and outputs.
  - zaarn 7y ago
    Ah, so how many percent of the network are currently using this second layer? If it sounds so good, everyone must be using it already!

mdavidn 7y ago

The average number of transactions per block is easy to measure historically. If each block takes 10 minutes, and the miner network indeed draws 73 TWh each year, then that works out to ~1.4 GWh per block.

baroffoos 7y ago

The bitcoin network has a limited number of transactions per second that it can process (Limited by block size). Last time I checked the network was basically at the limit so per transaction is not an insane way of looking at it. I get what you mean, if you decide not to make a transaction, the energy still gets spent but the more you use bitcoin the more valuable it becomes which incentivizes miners to keep mining. Also someone elses transaction will just slot in to fill the gap left since there is a very limited amount of space for transactions which is always fully utilized.

optimiz3 7y ago
Nowhere near the limit, and hasn't been for a while: https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#0,24h https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#0,24h
jimmydorry 7y ago
Not exactly. Second layer transactions sit on top, so the hard max of 4200 "settlements"[1] in a block does not necessarily mean 4200 transactions. With enough people using the second layer network, each "settlement" could mean finalising hundreds of transactions for thousands of people. This second layer network acts like a caching layer, and consolidates many transactions into a single transaction (put into very simple terms). [1] Combinations of inputs and outputs.
- zaarn 7y ago
  Ah, so how many percent of the network are currently using this second layer? If it sounds so good, everyone must be using it already!