• search hit 15 of 15
Back to Result List

Recent Developments in Blockchain Technology and their Impact on Energy Consumption

  • The enormous power consumption of Bitcoin has led to undifferentiated discussions in science and practice about the sustainability of blockchain and distributed ledger technology in general. However, blockchain technology is far from homogeneous - not only with regard to its applications, which now go far beyond cryptocurrencies and have reached businesses and the public sector, but also with regard to its technical characteristics and, in particular, its power consumption. This paper summarizes the status quo of the power consumption of various implementations of blockchain technology, with special emphasis on the recent 'Bitcoin Halving' and so-called 'zk-rollups'. We argue that although Bitcoin and other proof-of-work blockchains do indeed consume a lot of power, alternative blockchain solutions with significantly lower power consumption are already available today, and new promising concepts are being tested that could further reduce in particular the power consumption of large blockchain networks in the near future. From this weThe enormous power consumption of Bitcoin has led to undifferentiated discussions in science and practice about the sustainability of blockchain and distributed ledger technology in general. However, blockchain technology is far from homogeneous - not only with regard to its applications, which now go far beyond cryptocurrencies and have reached businesses and the public sector, but also with regard to its technical characteristics and, in particular, its power consumption. This paper summarizes the status quo of the power consumption of various implementations of blockchain technology, with special emphasis on the recent 'Bitcoin Halving' and so-called 'zk-rollups'. We argue that although Bitcoin and other proof-of-work blockchains do indeed consume a lot of power, alternative blockchain solutions with significantly lower power consumption are already available today, and new promising concepts are being tested that could further reduce in particular the power consumption of large blockchain networks in the near future. From this we conclude that although the criticism of Bitcoin's power consumption is legitimate, it should not be used to derive an energy problem of blockchain technology in general. In many cases in which processes can be digitised or improved with the help of more energy-efficient blockchain variants, one can even expect net energy savings.show moreshow less

Download full text files

Export metadata

Additional Services

Search Google Scholar
Metadaten
Author:Johannes SedlmeirORCiD, Hans Ulrich Buhl, Gilbert Fridgen, Robert KellerORCiDGND
URL / DOI:https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.07886v1
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00287-020-01321-z
Publisher:arXiv
Document Type:Preprint
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2021/02/17
Year of first Publication:2021
Number of pages:11 Seiten
First Page:1
Last Page:11
Institutes:Fakultät Tourismus-Management
INIT – Institut für Nachhaltige und Innovative Tourismusentwicklung
Dewey Decimal Classification:3 Sozialwissenschaften
Open Access:open_access
Research focus:FSP1: Energie
FSP2: Mobilität
FSP4: Soziale Innovationen
Publication Lists:Keller, Robert
Publication reviewed:nicht begutachtet
Release Date:2021/02/19
Verstanden ✔
Diese Webseite verwendet technisch erforderliche Session-Cookies. Durch die weitere Nutzung der Webseite stimmen Sie diesem zu. Unsere Datenschutzerklärung finden Sie hier.