About CBECI
Who is maintaining the CBECI?
The Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) is an ongoing project created and maintained by the Cambridge Digital Assets Programme (CDAP) Team at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, an independent research institute based at Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
The original design was developed and implemented by Michel Rauchs, Anton Dek, and Apolline Blandin. Since November 2021, Alexander Neumueller has been leading this project with active support from Zining Wang, Suwan Long, Yue Wu, Anton Dek, Shreya Metha, and Agustin Krupka. The CBECI website is maintained by developers Kyrylo Manakhov and Dmitry Kovalyov. Past contributions were made by (in alphabetical order) Alexi Anania, Damaris Njoki, Emilio Lanzalaco, Firas Dahi, Guillaume Girard, Hatim Hussain, Ingolf Pernice, Lukas Ruppert, Raha Peyravi, Thomas Eisermann, and Valentin Rousseau.
Who else has contributed to this project?
The CBECI would not have been possible without the continued support of many different individuals and organisations.
Marc Bevand, Christian Stoll, and Lena Klaaßen kindly reviewed the methodology of the index. Keith Bear, Kieran Garvey, Grigory McKain, Stephen McKeon, Robert Wardrop, Bryan Zhang, and Hunter Sims provided valuable suggestions and feedback. Alejandro de la Torre, Nic Carter, Leo Zhang, Taras Kulyk, Ben Gagnon, Jay Beddict, Wolfie Zhao and Nishant Sharma facilitated access to the mining industry and related stakeholders, in addition to providing helpful feedback and comments. The Coin Metrics team, in particular Karim Helmy and Lucas Nuzzi, have provided robust input data and useful guidance on data sourcing and methodology.
A special thanks also goes to our mining pool partners and the various contributors who prefer not to be publicly named. The CBECI has also greatly benefitted from the numerous comments and suggestions received through the feedback form on the website.
How frequently is the website updated?
The CBECI automatically updates power and emissions-related data every 24 hours. While we aim to provide monthly updates of the mining map, certain constraints (e.g. dependence on third parties for data provision, strict processes to preserve pool privacy and data confidentiality, data validation and verification) may occasionally cause delays. The educational content on the website is also regularly updated but does not follow a formal schedule.
Please refer to the Change Log to remain informed about the latest changes.
Can I use content and data from this website?
As a not-for-profit research institute, we strive to broaden access to robust data and insights. Nearly all our research is in the public domain and can be accessed at no cost. Data and other material from the CBECI website may be freely used by third parties with proper attribution and website linking (a good example of referencing can be found here). CBECI estimates and aggregate mining location data are available for download as csv files. The work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Please contact us here if you have more questions about how to use our material.
What does the CBECI roadmap look like?
As we progress, a key priority of our research will be to develop a more nuanced perspective of Bitcoin's electricity mix and more closely examine the climate risks and opportunities associated with cryptocurrency mining. Work on a publicly accessible carbon accounting tool for Bitcoin is also well underway, enabling users to quickly approximate emissions associated with their individual holdings and interactions with the network.
Plans are also in place to augment the recently launched Cambridge Blockchain Network Sustainability Index with an estimate of Ethereum's pre- and post-Merge greenhouse gas emissions and additional network-related insights. Furthermore, we intend to expand the universe of blockchain networks covered on our website beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum.
We are always open to new ideas and suggestions. You can share yours with us here.
About the Cambridge Digital Assets Programme.
The Cambridge Digital Assets Programme (CDAP) is a multi-year research initiative hosted by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) in collaboration with 14 prominent public and private institutions. The programme seeks to provide the datasets, digital tools and insights necessary to facilitate a balanced public dialogue about the opportunities and risks presented by a growing digital asset ecosystem, with the ultimate objective to help inform evidence-based decision-making and regulation through open-access research.
The CDAP’s institutional collaborators are (in alphabetical order): Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub, British International Investment (BII), Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC), EY, Fidelity, UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), Goldman Sachs, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), International Monetary Fund (IMF), Invesco, Mastercard, MSCI, Visa, and World Bank.