After attaining a 6-months all-time high difficulty about 2weeks ago, the Bitcoin (BTC) mining difficulty adjustment has lowered for the first time since November 2021, dropping about 1.5%.
The change comes after a string of six positive difficulty adjustments in a row, during which the mining difficulty and hash rate both reached new highs.
Over the last two weeks, the average hashrate has dropped to 197.19 exahashes per second (EH/s), while the average block time has surpassed the 10-minute objective, clocking in at 10 minutes 09 seconds.
Miners vying to solve the next valid block will find it slightly easier as a result of the difficulty adjustment.
BTC Mining difficulty
One of the most significant elements of the Bitcoin protocol is the difficulty of adjustment. The difficulty of mining a new block “adjusts” every two weeks or 2,016 verified blocks based on the average of the previous 2,016 blocks, making it easier or more difficult to mine blocks.
“The proof-of-work difficulty is calculated by a moving average targeting an average number of blocks each hour,” Satoshi Nakamoto noted in the Bitcoin whitepaper. The difficulty rises if they’re generated too quickly.”
By inference, blocks were generated too slowly over the previous 2,016 blocks – an average of 10 minutes, 09 seconds.
As a result, the difficulty adjustment is automatically reduced, making it slightly easier for miners to solve valid blocks over the next 2,016 blocks.
The -1.49 percent correction, according to Denver Bitcoin, a well-known Bitcoin miner, could be the only one for the year.
A 1.49 percent correction pales in comparison to the mining abyss of May to July 2021, when a Chinese ban on Bitcoin mining resulted in a catastrophic decline in the hash rate.
However, it quickly went back up in 2021, increasing by 31% as countries such as Kazakhstan and Canada picked up the slack, demonstrating the network’s resiliency.
The Bitcoin mining market is becoming increasingly competitive, with companies like Intel eager to make a dent in the hash rate by introducing their own miners.
The 300 eh/s hash rate, as Denver Bitcoin hinted, could be possible by 2022, especially if mining demonstrates increasing resilience and geographic flexibility.
