The last two changes to the difficulty of mining on the Bitcoin network have pushed the difficulty to an all-time high, causing a decrease in hashrate and block interval speeds. Prior to the last 4.68% difficulty retargeting increase, block intervals were faster than the average 10 minutes, from approximately 8 minutes 54 seconds to 9 minutes 31 seconds. However, since the change, block times have slowed down, with statistics showing durations from 10 minutes 44 seconds to 10 minutes 36 seconds.
Slower than average block intervals can lead to a decrease in Bitcoin mining difficulty
The next mining difficulty change is scheduled for February 12, 2023. At the time of writing, metrics indicate that the difficulty could drop as low as 5.6% below the current rate. The decrease in the estimated mining difficulty for Bitcoin is due to slower than average block intervals. Before the last two difficulty increases, the block times were faster, which led to the increases. Data currently shows that block times have slowed down since the last difficulty change, with times ranging from 10 minutes 44 seconds to 10 minutes 36 seconds.
Bitcoin’s hashrate has been below average, averaging 279 exahash per second (EH/s) over the past 2016 blocks. As of 11:30 am ET on February 4, 2023, the statistics show a hash rate of 258 EH/s. On February 1, 2023, the total hashrate dropped to 217 EH/s after reaching a peak of 279 EH/s the day before. The hashrate then increased, reaching 309 EH/s on February 2, before declining 16.50% to its current level of 258 U/s.
As of Saturday, the main Bitcoin mining pool is Foundry USA, with 90.61 exhash per second (EH/s) or 33.4% of the total hashrate. Foundry is followed by Antpool (18.14%), F2pool (14.08%), Binance Pool (13.13%), and Viabtc (9.07%). Thirteen known Bitcoin mining pools are contributing hashrate to the blockchain, while unknown miners, known as stealth miners, control 1.67% of the hashrate, or 4.53 EH/s. If the slowdown in block intervals results in a decrease in difficulty within eight days, miners will receive a two-week deferral of the highest difficulty ever.
What impact will decreasing Bitcoin mining difficulty have on the overall network and hashrate of the cryptocurrency? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.
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