Bitcoin News and Finance
While Bitcoin’s Price Slumps the Network’s Mining Difficulty Reaches a Lifetime High Skip to main content

While Bitcoin’s Price Slumps the Network’s Mining Difficulty Reaches a Lifetime High

While Bitcoin's Price Slumps the Network's Mining Difficulty Reaches a Lifetime High

After bitcoin prices took a hit following Tesla’s recent u-turn, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty jumped over 25 trillion, the highest the metric has seen during the protocol’s lifetime. The mining difficulty spike follows the recent 12% difficulty drop the network experienced two weeks ago.

Bitcoin’s Mining Difficulty Jumps to 25 Trillion, Could Hit 30 Trillion in Two Weeks

After some issues with the Xinjiang grid in China three weeks ago, the overall SHA256 hashrate used by the Bitcoin (BTC) network dropped considerably. This in turn caused the BTC network’s mining difficulty to drop 12.6% when the hashrate lowered.

Essentially, BTC’s mining difficulty is the measurement of how difficult it is to find a hash below a given target. The more hashpower there is, then the more the difficulty increases, and when the hashrate lowers, the difficulty drops as well. The difficulty system Satoshi Nakamoto crafted is meant to keep equilibrium within the mining system and fairly consistent 10-minute block intervals.

While Bitcoin's Price Slumps the Network's Mining Difficulty Reaches a Lifetime High
BTC Mining difficulty on May 13, 2021.

On Wednesday, BTC’s mining difficulty jumped to 25.05 trillion and this metric is the highest the difficulty has ever been. This means it is harder than ever before to find a Bitcoin block and reap the coinbase rewards and fees.

BTC’s hashrate has been chugging along much higher since the issues in China and on May 9, 2021, it tapped 214 exahash per second (EH/s). However, since the difficulty increased and the price dropped from Tesla’s announcement, hashrate has also dropped.

ASIC Mining Rigs Still Profitable Under Current Elements, Antpool Takes the Hashrate Lead

At the time of writing, the Bitcoin network hashrate is around 170 to 180 exahash per second according to daily onchain statistics. Further, in 13 days if the hashrate was to remain at current levels, another increase could happen. BTC’s network difficulty could jump to 30.30 trillion in less than two weeks’ time.

Still, at current BTC prices and with the 25.05 trillion difficulty jump, most ASIC mining rigs are still profitable at $0.12 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). A 100 terahash ASIC mining rig still can get between $30 to $40 per day, with current difficulty metrics and $0.12 per kWh.

On May 13, 2021, there are approximately 18 mining pools dedicating hashrate to the BTC chain. Interestingly, for months on end, F2pool was the top mining operation with the most hashrate, but Antpool has recently taken the lead.

Poolin follows Antpool at the time of writing and F2pool is now the third-largest mining pool on Thursday afternoon. Bitcoin proponents and investors will be watching the hashrate and mining difficulty very closely, as many believe that the hashrate follows BTC’s price and vice versa.

What do you think about the recent mining difficulty spike on Wednesday? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Custodial Lightning Network Service Attack Discovered by LN ‘Newbie’ — Hacker Strikes 6 LN Custodians

On September 18, a Redditor posted to the r/bitcoin forum and explained how he discovered a way to “attack [the] lightning Network’s custodial services.” The Reddit account dubbed “Reckless Satoshi” wanted to figure out if a “discrepancy between real routing fees and service’s transaction fee can be exploited for a profit.” The researcher disclosed that he wanted to see how large the damage could be and said “it is bad.” 6 Lightning Network Custodial Services Attacked, Researcher Discloses Findings to Offenders Prior to Public Disclosure A Redditor called Reckless Satoshi published a disclosure post on r/bitcoin this past Saturday and disclosed how he had found a vulnerability with routing fees and some of the Lightning Network’s custodial services. The research attack was done in good faith and after it was complete he disclosed the bugs to the offending services before publishing his findings. Reckless Satoshi used the Lightning Network (LN) attack on six different services incl
Post a Comment
Read more

Axie Infinity Down 40% Since Last Week’s Price High, Protocol Revenue Outshines Competitors

Last week, the game token leveraged within the Axie Infinity gaming universe skyrocketed to all-time highs, while other crypto markets remained extremely lackluster. During the last seven days, Axie Infinity’s platform token has dropped significantly in value shedding more than 12%. Meanwhile, the game platform’s smooth love potion token has slid over 8% over the last 24 hours. Axie Infinity Down More Than 40% Since All-Time High Not too long ago, the axie infinity (AXS) token was a topical conversation because it reached an all-time high on July 15. At the time, AXS managed to capture $28.93 per unit and since then it has shed 12.8% during the last seven days. The axie infinity (AXS) token is used within the blockchain-based game that involves battles between token-based creatures called “Axies.” AXS is used for the game’s governance system as well as other actions within the game. At the time of writing axie infinity (AXS) is exchanging hands for $16.70 per coin. AXS/USD on Ju
Post a Comment
Read more

Play-to-Earn Game From Polker (PKR) Exchange Listing – Endorsed by Akon

The Play-to-Earn NFT based Polker.Game ‘s native token $PKR has been officially listed on the popular centralized exchange BitMart. Polker.game has been in the spotlight recently as Akon, the American R&B superstar and record producer gave his official endorsement of polker stating that the “game is revolutionary” and that Polker is “hands down.. the best play to earn, NFT game in the space.”. With the BitMart listing and celebrity endorsement from Akon, Polker is perfectly positioned to become a major player in the Play-to-Earn league. Watch Akon’s Video Here What is Play-to-Earn? Although not a new concept, play-to-earn has become a trending term due to the popularity of the NFT game AXIE infinity. In the past, previous play-to-earn games have also achieved success – however, thanks to the huge amount of development in the blockchain space in recent years the gaming experience is now massively improved. Play-to-Earn games are essentially free to play and open to anyone and
Post a Comment
Read more

China to Crack Down on Copyright Infringement Through NFTs

Authorities in China are going after creators of digital collectibles based on other people’s works of art, the use of which was not authorized. The government offensive is part of a campaign to combat online copyright infringement and piracy with the participation of several departments. Regulators in China Move to Strengthen Copyright Supervision of Online Platforms The National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC) has recently launched a campaign against copyright infringement and piracy on the internet, together with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Internet Information Office of the People’s Republic. A major objective of the initiative is to improve copyright supervision of online businesses by investigating cases involving the sale and distribution of infringing products on short video, live broadcast and e-commerce platforms, and promptly dealing with infringing content, the agency announced in a press r
Post a Comment
Read more
Blogarama - Blog Directory