Bitcoin miners could get another break this week as the network’s mining difficulty is forecast to drop tomorrow. Bitcoin’s Difficulty Adjustment Algorithm (DAA) changes every two weeks, and during the last DAA change, the difficulty dropped by 4.33%. Currently, at 235 exhash per second (EH/s), the network expects to see a 0.51% decrease in DAA from today’s metric.
This Week’s Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Changes Are Expected to Be Lower
On June 7, 2022, there is one more day until the next DAA change and it is expected to decrease when the shift begins. The DAA changes every 2,016 blocks, or roughly every two weeks, and after a block high of 735,840, it had the highest difficulty rating ever recorded at 31.35 trillion.
Essentially, if the blocks are mined faster than expected, the DAA increases and if the blocks mined are slower during a two-week period, the difficulty decreases. Following an all-time high (ATH) of 31.35 trillion, the last DAA shift at block height 737,856 declined by 4.33%, bringing the current difficulty parameter to 29.90 trillion.
It is much easier to find bitcoin block rewards when the difficulty goes down, and it is much harder for bitcoin miners to find BTC block rewards when the DAA metric increases. The DAA retarget is over 160 blocks away and is expected to change tomorrow, June 8, 2022.
If there is a drop of 0.51% expected, the difficulty for the two weeks following the DAA change will be ₹29.75 trillion. Bitcoin’s hash rate has been accelerating since reaching an ATH of 275 EH/s on May 2, but since then it has not exceeded a lifetime record. In fact, the hashrate temporarily dipped below the 200 EH/s area as the price bottomed out at the end of May.
While the DAA is expected to shift downwards, during the past three days, 445 BTC block rewards came into existence. Foundry USA captured the most blocks during the past three days, as it received 105 out of 445 BTC block subsidy rewards.
Foundry’s hash rate represents 23.6% of the global hash rate, or 49.70 EH/s of processing power. Antpool is the second largest mining pool in terms of hash rate as the pool has received 78 block rewards during a period of 72 hours. Antpool has 36.92 EH/s dedicated to the BTC blockchain, which is equivalent to 17.53% of the global hash rate.
There are 14 known pools that dedicate hash rate to the BTC chain and 0.45% of the global hash rate or 946.74 petash per second (pH/s) belongs to unknown or stealth miners. Profits have dropped significantly in the form of Bitmain’s Antminer S19 Pro+ Hyd, the most powerful ASIC mining device. With 198 terahash per second (TH/s), an estimated $9.80 per day is received.
That figure includes payouts of $0.12 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) and the current hardship of $29.90 trillion. The Microbt Whatsminer M50S costs 126 TH/s and power $0.12 per kWh, which can generate an estimated $6.78 per day in BTC profit. Many ASIC mining equipment manufactured before 2021 are making profits of $5 or less per day at current BTC exchange rates.
What do you think about the current state of bitcoin mining and the upcoming difficulty adjustment algorithm change that will take place this week? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comment section below.
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