TLDR:
- On September 11, 2024, Bitcoin mining difficulty smashed previous records, hitting an all-time high of 92.67 trillion.
- This rise in difficulty transpires amidst shrinking miner revenue and profitability.
- Bitcoin's hash rate is on the upswing, now hitting an average of 693 exahashes every single second.
- The hashprice, a measure of miner earnings per computing power unit, has tumbled to an all-time low.
- Some in the mining community are branching out, exploring alternative ventures such as Fractal Bitcoin.
With the difficulty of mining Bitcoin climbing to a record of 92.67 trillion, a 3.6% hike, the mining industry faces significant challenges like slumping miner revenues.
Every couple of weeks, or every 2,016 blocks, the Bitcoin network recalibrates its mining difficulty to keep block discovery time around 10 minutes.
As more participants plug into the network or existing ones ramp up their computing power, the difficulty grows, stabilizing block creation.
Along with the uptick in difficulty, Bitcoin's hash rate is also experiencing a steady climb, averaging 693 exahashes per second, signifying escalating computational power committed to the network.
Hash rate gauges how many calculations mining rigs can execute per second to crack the computational puzzles crucial for transaction validation and block formation.
But this upsurge in mining difficulty and hash rate bears costs for miners. The hashprice, which quantifies miner earnings pegged to their computational might, has plummeted to a record low, falling below $40 for each petahash.
The squeeze on profitability applies pressure on mining outfits, especially those already reeling from the Bitcoin halving in April 2024, which sliced block rewards from 6.25 BTC down to 3.125 BTC.
Sagging profitability is nudging some miners to hunt for new income streams, including ventures like offering services to AI enterprises.
Others are delving into fresh prospects. within the Bitcoin ecosystem For instance, Fractal Bitcoin, a potential scaling remedy, could empower miners with supplementary revenue peaking at $1.41 per PH/s daily.
These obstacles notwithstanding, the escalating difficulty and hash rate highlight sustained interest and capital allocation within Bitcoin mining.
Boosted difficulty also bolsters Bitcoin's network security by making it more resource-intensive to orchestrate any blockchain attacks.
