This past weekend, Bitcoin mining difficulty had yet another downward adjustment of just under 5% to 13.673 trillion, last seen in early January 2020, following the most significant drop in Bitcoin’s history two weeks ago. At the end of May, the mining difficulty was at its all-time high of just above 25 trillion. Since then, four downward adjustments have been recorded in a row, representing a drop of 45.6% due to a decline in hash rate caused by China’s crackdown on cryptocurrency mining. These downward adjustments in difficulty are helping the hash rate recover from its 68 Th/s low at the end of June to now around 100 Th/s, with Viabtc, Antpool, Poolin, F2pool, and Btc.com being the top mining pools accounting for 59.4% of global hash rate followed by Binance, Foundry, and Slushpool which has captured nearly 22% hash power. Bitcoin hash rate surged to its peak at 197.6 TH/s in mid-May after miners increased the overall hash power to capitalize on the booming market. Though orders for the new ASIC machines soared at the time, the total capacity was not installed due to supply chain disruption and semiconductor shortage. "The hash rate about doubled in the past year. But if all the machines on order had been installed, it would have gone up a lot more," said Alex de Vries of Digiconomist, which tracks Bitcoin's energy usage.
Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Sees 4th Downward Adjustment in a Row; Also Occured At the End 2018 Bear Market
bitcoinexchangeguide.com
19 July 2021 09:47, UTC