In the Terra blockchain crash, Bitcoin’s hash rate was well above the 200 exahash per second range, at 212 EH/s at the time of writing. Bitcoin’s hashrate has remained elevated after hitting an all-time high on May 2 with a block height of 734,577. Additionally, while Bitcoin miners continued to hunt for blocks, the network’s difficulty increased again after the last spike on May 10, with a block height of 735,840.
Bitcoin Security Has Never Been Stronger – Difficulty Hits 31.25 Trillion
Bitcoin’s hash rate has continued to surge over the past 12 months, hitting multiple all-time highs over the past year. The most recent all-time high occurred on May 2, 2022, with a block height of 734,577 and a hash rate of 275.01 EH/s.
Currently, the hash rate continues to hold a high of 212 EH/s despite $350 billion being wiped from the cryptoeconomy in 7 days, according to Into the Block’s weekly key metrics. While the price of BTC dropped, the network also experienced a 4.89% increase in difficulty at block height 735,840.
In the last two Difficulty Adjustment Algorithm (DAA) changes, the difficulty of the network increased by 10.45% in 4 weeks. With a difficulty of 31.25 trillion, it is the hardest Bitcoin (BTC) mining ever. In 9 days, DAA is expected to increase by another 0.72%. As prices drop, BTC miners are far less profitable than they were two weeks ago.
For example, Bitmain’s Antminer S19 Pro+ Hyd, which generates 198 terahash per second (TH/s), will only get you $9.29 per day at current prices. That is, if Bitcoin miners pay $0.12 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). Machines producing less than 30 TH/s may not see a profit if paying $0.12 per kWh for electricity. Innosilicon’s Terminator 3, a miner producing 52 TH/s, can earn about $0.22 per day in BTC if they pay $0.12 per kWh for electricity.
In the past 7 days, 1,035 blocks were mined on the Bitcoin blockchain, three of which were empty blocks. Foundry USA was the top miner of the week as the pool found 211 blocks out of 1,035. Foundry has 20.39% of the global computing power, or 45.75 EH/s of computing power. Foundry is followed by F2pool, a mining operation that currently controls 14.49% of the global processing power dedicated to the Bitcoin network.
F2pool, which has 32.52 EH/s of hash power dedicated to the network, discovered 150 blocks out of 1,035 discovered last week. Today, 15 known mining pools dedicate SHA256 computing power to the BTC chain, and about 1.16% of the world’s computing power is owned by unknown miners. An unknown mining entity or stealth miner ordered 2.6 EH/s and captured 12 of the 1,035 blocks discovered this week.
While it’s been a crazy week for cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin miners continue to do what they do best, constantly striving to find as many blocks as possible. Today, the price of BTC is much lower than it was two weeks ago, and the increase in difficulty makes finding BTC blocks more difficult than ever. In the face of these factors, the network hash rate remains high and BTC is more secure than at any time in the past 13 years.
What do you think about the hash rate staying high when Bitcoin prices are low, and the difficulty of reaching all-time highs? Let us know what you think of these topics in the comments section below.
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