XRP Ledger Consumes $73K in Annual Electricity vs Bitcoin’s Multi-Billion Costs

Data from Cambridge Judge Business School shows XRP’s energy footprint is far smaller than Bitcoin’s, costing $0.0000028 per transaction on an annual 405,938 kWh usage.

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Summary

XRP Ledger recorded an annual electricity usage of 405,938 kilowatt-hours, resulting in a cost of approximately $73,000 for one year and translating to about $0.0000028 per transaction. In comparison, Bitcoin’s network consumed electricity worth between $8 billion and $12 billion annually. The figures, highlighted by Cambridge Judge Business School, underscore the stark energy efficiency difference between XRP’s consensus mechanism and Bitcoin’s proof-of-work mining process.

Terms & Concepts
  • Proof-of-Work (PoW): A blockchain consensus mechanism requiring miners to solve complex problems, consuming significant electricity.
  • Consensus Mechanism: The process by which blockchain networks agree on the validity of transactions.
  • Kilowatt-hour (kWh): A unit of energy measurement equal to one kilowatt of power used for one hour.