Bitcoin mining difficulty is being adjusted to a fresh record high, reflecting a continued increase in the number of miners competing to secure the network.
According to the data presented by coinwarz.comBTC mining difficulty will be lifted from its current level of 49.55 trillion to 50.91 trillion in tomorrow’s bi-weekly adjustment.
This means that the difficulty faced by individual miners has increased by over 2.7% when trying to discover a bitcoin block.
The jump in mining difficulty reflects the fact that, according to CoinWarz.com, the average block time is currently around 9.73 minutes, 0.27 minutes (or about 16.2 seconds) faster than the bitcoin protocol’s aim of maintaining a block time of around 10 minutes. Is.
Crypto on-chain data analytics firm Glassnode states that the bitcoin protocol will “adjust the difficulty up or down when the average observed block-interval is lower or higher (over 10 minutes) respectively”.
jump in btc mining Difficulty goes hand-in-hand with a continued rally in the hashrate (or overall computing power) of the bitcoin network.
According to the data presented by glassnodeThe 14-day moving average mean daily hash rate was around 366 exahashes per second (EH/s) on Monday, a record high.
What is the increase in bitcoin mining difficulty?
A bitcoin network fee increase This month has given a good boost bitcoin mining Profitability – For each block mined, miners are not only rewarded with newly issued BTC tokens, but they also receive a share of the network fee.
Behind the fee hike, which has eased acceptably in recent weeks, although fees still remain at abnormal levels, is an explosion of bitcoin blockchain-related activity. ordinals protocol,
The Ordinals Protocol, which pioneered the concept of direct inscription on the bitcoin base chain, has been seen as adding significant functionality to the bitcoin blockchain.
nft and the so-called BRC-20 Token Bitcoin can now be issued directly on the blockchain and smart-contract-powered decentralized applications are starting to pop up.
Bitcoin appears to be in the early stages of transition to a smart chain (like Ethereum), and the demand for inscriptions, which are counted as transactions, has resulted in increased demand for the Bitcoin network block space.
No signs of recession yet
The Ordinals protocol was only launched late last year and the BRC-20 token standard was launched only two months ago.
In fact, it seems as though scribal innovation on the bitcoin blockchain has only just begun.
This means that, at the very least, transaction numbers are likely to grow beyond their pre-Bitcoin Ordinals Protocol levels of last year for the foreseeable future.
And that means bitcoin network fees are likely to remain high, which means the incentive for more miners to join the network will remain strong.
The main uncertainty for miners right now (beyond the daily volatility of bitcoin’s price) is next year halfWhich will reduce the block reward from the current 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.
This can act as a disincentive for new miners to join, for fear that a reward halved may render the effort futile.
But historically, Bitcoin price has performed exceptionally well led by and in the period immediately following ChanceMore than halving the block reward.