Bitcoin’s mining difficulty was predicted to rise by 6% at the time of its automated readjustment on February 15. On Friday, February 16, the Bitcoin.mining difficulty, a measure of how tough it is to solve the mathematical puzzle connected with a block, crossed 80 trillion.
According to BTC.com, the mining difficulty reached a record 81.73 trillion, while the network’s hash rate—which gauges the combined processing power of miners—reached 562.81 exahashes per second (EH/s). Since January 2023, the difficulty of mining Bitcoin has been continuously increasing, and in the coming months, it is predicted to reach 100 trillion.
The difficulty of adding a new block to the blockchain is measured by mining difficulty in Bitcoin’s proof-of-work method. Miners need to use more processing power and energy to find the proper hash in a higher difficulty level. The difficulty of Bitcoin has increased by over 100% in the past year.
The mining difficulty of Bitcoin was predicted to rise by 6% at the time of its automated readjustment on February 15. Data from the tracking website BTC.com indicates that if it materialises, the difficulty would reach new all-time highs and surpass 80 trillion for the first time. As the most recent US macro data exceeded forecasts, bitcoin remained steady at $52,000 during the Wall Street opening on February 16.
The “Bitcoin Halving” will occur in late April and reduce Bitcoin’s mining payouts by half. Roughly every four years, Bitcoin’s coders integrated the reduction into the token’s structure to combat inflation. The mining incentive for Bitcoin was last halved in May 2020.
With the impending halving, Bitcoin incentives will drop from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. Because it will be harder for less productive miners to make ends meet and quit, this adjustment may lead to a decrease in the hash rate. Since the network strives to maintain a consistent block creation every 10 minutes, a lower hash rate is probably going to result in a lower level of difficulty for Bitcoin miners.
Galaxy’s mining researchers predict that following the Bitcoin halving, which will see block rewards cut in half and just the most productive mining rigs remaining, up to 20% of Bitcoin’s current hash power could become unavailable.