In its latest study, CoinGecko has estimated the electricity cost of mining one bitcoin (BTC), revealing wide variations across the world. How should we interpret these results?
CoinGecko studies the cost of mining Bitcoin by country
It’s no secret that the cost of mining Bitcoin (BTC) varies depending on where you are in the world, due to the disparity in electricity prices. With this in mind, CoinGecko conducted a study to estimate how much it would cost to mine 1 BTC at home.
As the map below shows, the difference is so great that it ranges from $266 for electricity in Lebanon to more than $208,000 in Italy:
Cost of bitcoin mining by country
While there are differences even within each continent, Asia generally has the lowest cost of mining and Europe the highest.
Although the price in France is not mentioned in the study, taking an average kilowatt-hour (kWh) cost of €0.2276 in 2023, multiplied by the 266,000 kWh needed estimated in the study, would give €60,541.6 for 1 BTC. At the current euro/dollar rate, this represents $65,828.
However, it is important to note that these figures only focus on the cost of electricity, without taking into account the way in which it is produced, or even the geopolitical situation in each region. There are also several countries where mining is officially banned, such as Iraq, Egypt and China.
In addition to the countries where mining is banned, Bhutan is in 10th place at $4,256.33 per BTC. Last spring, we learned that the Kingdom was actively investing in mining.
Methodology used by the study
As mentioned above, CoinGecko estimated the power consumption for mining one bitcoin at 266,000 kWh. This figure is based on the energy consumption of 8 ASIC models on the market. However, there are a few points to be made about the methodology used.
The mining difficulty used as a reference value corresponds to the level at the end of July, but this is not fixed in time, in the same way as other parameters such as the cost of electricity. In the case of the latter, the calculations were based on data from December 2022.
On the other hand, with an average monthly consumption of 143 kWh, it would take around 7 years to mine 1 BTC, which gives a sufficiently long timeframe for the various parameters to vary considerably.
While these results should not be taken at face value, they do provide an interesting overview of the disparity in energy costs around the world, and why some regions are favoured by miners over others.
