---
title: "Why and How Bitcoin Consumes Energy Lyn Alden - Swan Bitcoin"
description: "Bitcoin’s energy consumption is complex and often misunderstood, so this rabbit hole provides some resources to help understand this topic."
url: https://www.swanbitcoin.com/canon/why-and-how-bitcoin-consumes-energy/
---

# Why and How Bitcoin Consumes Energy Lyn Alden - Swan Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s energy consumption is complex and often misunderstood, so this rabbit hole provides some resources to help understand this topic.

---

Bitcoin’s energy consumption is complex and often misunderstood, so this rabbit hole provides some resources to help understand this topic.

**Lyn Alden** ([@lynaldencontact](https://twitter.com/lynaldencontact))

Bitcoin uses a proof-of-work protocol to operate the network, which means that miners expend real-world resources (electricity) in order to validate transactions and secure the blockchain. Rather than being a bug, this is a feature because it is what keeps the protocol decentralized.

Other consensus protocols such as proof-of-stake may have their use-cases, but they make numerous trade-offs compared to proof-of-work. They are far more complex, with more attack surfaces, and are prone to centralization over time.

In addition, Bitcoin miners use energy in a very unique and useful way. Specifically, unlike data centers or other types of electricity consumers, individual Bitcoin miners don’t require very high uptime or a lot of internet bandwidth, which means they can go to areas of stranded energy production or can be co-located with power generation facilities as load balancers.

- [Bitcoin’s Energy Usage Isn’t a Problem. Here’s Why.](https://www.lynalden.com/bitcoin-energy/) (Lyn Alden): This is my primary longform research piece that analyzes the Bitcoin network's energy consumption from multiple angles, discussing its scaling and the unique way that it uses energy.
- [Proof-of-Stake and Stablecoins: A Blockchain Centralization Dilemma](https://www.lynalden.com/proof-of-stake/) (Lyn Alden): This article goes into detail on the trade-offs that proof-of-stake consensus protocols make relative to proof-of-work consensus protocols.
- [TheBWord: Demystifying Bitcoin](https://www.thebword.org/c/track-1-demystifying-bitcoin) (Nic Carter): Nic Carter gave a concise video presentation at the B-Word event about Bitcoin's energy consumption which is a very accessible resource as a starting point.
- [Crypto vs The Environment](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LP8G-oZnEs) (Lyn Alden, Alex De Vries): In this hour-long debate, I counter a lot of the environmental arguments that are often used against Bitcoin, and explain why most of them are not accurate.