Bitcoin’s hash rate has remained well above the 200 exhash per second threshold at 212 EH/s at the time of writing, amid the Terra Blockchain meltdown. Bitcoin’s hashpower remains high after hitting an all-time high at 734,577 on May 02. Furthermore, while bitcoin miners continue to search for blocks, the network recorded another difficulty increase to a block high of 735,840 after the previous surge on May 10.
Bitcoin’s Security Has Never Been Stronger – Difficulty Reaches 31.25 Trillion
Over the past 12 months, Bitcoin’s hash rate has been steadily increasing, reaching an all-year high. The most recent record high occurred on May 02, 2022 at block height 734,577, which saw a hash rate of 275.01 EH/s.
Currently, the hashrate remains high at 212 EH/s, despite the fact that $350 billion was wiped out of the crypto economy in seven days according to InToBlock’s weekly key metrics. While the price of BTC is lower, the network also saw a 4.89% difficulty increase at block height 735,840.
During the last two difficulty adjustment algorithm (DAA) changes, the network’s difficulty has increased by 10.45% in four weeks’ time. With a difficulty of 31.25 trillion, bitcoin (BTC) is by far the hardest to mine. In nine days, the DAA is again expected to increase by an estimated 0.72%. With the price crashing, BTC miners have made far less profit than they were two weeks ago.
For example, the Bitmain Antminer S19 Pro+ Hyd., which produces 198 terahash per second (TH/s), gets only $9.29 per day at current prices. If the bitcoin miner is paying $0.12 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). Machines producing less than 30 TH/s may not see a profit if they pay $0.12 per kWh in electricity costs. Innosilicon’s Terminator 3, a miner producing 52 TH/s, gets around $0.22 per day in BTC if they pay $0.12 per kWh in electricity costs.
During the past seven days, 1,035 blocks were mined on the bitcoin blockchain and three blocks were empty blocks. Foundry USA is this week’s top miner as the pool has received 211 blocks out of 1,035. The foundry commands 20.39% of the global hash rate, or 45.75 EH/s in terms of hashpower. The foundry is followed by F2pool, a mining operation that currently accounts for 14.49% of the global processing power dedicated to the bitcoin network.
F2pool has 32.52 EH/s hashpower dedicated to the network and the pool got 150 blocks out of 1,035 it received last week. Today there are 15 known pools that dedicate SHA256 hashpower to the BTC chain and approximately 1.16% of the global hash rate is owned by unknown miners. Unknown mining entities or stealth miners command 2.6 EH/s and have captured 12 of the 1,035 blocks found this week.
While it has been a crazy week in crypto, bitcoin miners continue to do what they do best, constantly working to find more and more blocks. Today, the BTC price is much lower than it was two weeks ago, and the increase in difficulty makes it harder than ever to find a BTC block. In the face of these factors, the network hash rate remains high and BTC is far more secure than it was in the past 13 years.
What do you think about the difficulty of the hash rate remaining high and reaching all-time highs when the price of bitcoin goes down? Tell us what you think about these topics in the comments section below.
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