Bitcoin mining difficulty rose 3.9% late Wednesday, hitting a new all-time high in the final correction before the estimated April 20 halving.
According to Blockchain Explorer, the difficulty adjustment was made at a block height of 838,656, reaching a record of 86.39 trillion Menpur. Bitcoin miners appear to be increasing hashrate in preparation for the block subsidy reward to drop from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC next week.
Bitcoin mining difficulty measures how difficult it is to mine a new block compared to being the easiest ever. It adjusts every 2016 blocks (about 2 weeks) so that on average a new block is found every 10 minutes, regardless of the number of miners actively mining. The higher the difficulty, the more computing power and energy is required for miners to find the correct hash for the next block.
Bitcoin mining difficulty. image: Menpur.
Bitcoin miners increase hashrate ahead of halving
Bitcoin’s hashrate, which measures the total computational power spent by miners on the network, hit an all-time seven-day moving average of 629.75EH/ahead of Wednesday’s difficulty adjustment, according to The Block’s data dashboard. It is said that it reached seconds.
Bitcoin mining difficulty and hashrate have been on an upward trend since the beginning of the year, with difficulty increasing by 20% and total hashrate increasing by 24% during the period. However, this year, miners’ profits have also increased due to the rise in Bitcoin prices, but it remains to be seen how much the halving will affect inefficient mining operations, and ultimately the overall network metrics after the subsidy reduction. It is not yet known how much of an impact it will have.
Bitcoin hash price has fallen $0.11/TH/sec After difficulty adjustment, it is expected to be halved immediately after halving. Hash price is a term coined by Bitcoin mining service company Luxor to refer to the expected value of 1 TH/s of hash power per day. This metric quantifies how much revenue a miner can expect from a given amount of hash rate.
Bitcoin halving countdown
According to The Block’s Bitcoin Halving Countdown page, Bitcoin’s next halving event will occur on April 20th at 4am UTC (12am ET), based on Bitcoin’s average block creation time of 10 minutes. It is currently estimated that the outbreak will occur around the time.
Bitcoin halving is programmed to occur automatically every 210,000 blocks, or approximately every four years. When a halving event occurs, a miner will receive 50% less Bitcoin as a subsidy for each block of transactions that he mines and adds to the blockchain. However, you will continue to earn additional transaction fee rewards for each mined block as usual.
There have been three halvings in the history of Bitcoin, with the block subsidy inflation rate decreasing from 50 BTC to 25 BTC in 2012, 12.5 BTC in 2016, and the last halving on May 11, 2020. During the halving, it decreased to 6.25 BTC. There will only be 21 million Bitcoins in existence.
The halving event will continue until the last Bitcoin is expected to be mined around 2140. After that, miners can only earn revenue from transaction fees.
Historically, Bitcoin halving has been associated with significant fluctuations in the cryptocurrency’s price. Although not directly causal, these events often precede significant bull runs in the Bitcoin market.
According to The Block’s price page, Bitcoin is currently trading at $70,647, up 67% since the beginning of the year.
BTC/USD price chart. Image: Block/TradingView.
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