Toward a Holistic Perspective on Blockchain Electricity Consumption

The awareness of Bitcoin's problematic electricity consumption has carried over to the underlying technology as a whole, leading to a widespread and controversial discourse on the sustainability of blockchain networks that still reveals knowledge gaps. In this paper, we conduct a systematic analysis to identify the scientific body of knowledge on key components and factors that impact blockchain electricity consumption. We find that most research so far has focused on Bitcoin and proof-of-work-based cryptocurrencies, with less attention given to blockchain networks that operate with far less electricity-intensive consensus mechanisms or employ emerging scaling solutions. Building on a systematic literature review and additional explorative and inductive reasoning, we present a comprehensive list of determining factors of blockchain electricity consumption and discuss how they are interconnected. Our research structures methodologies and parameters for measuring the electricity consumption of blockchains and identifies important gaps and avenues for future research.