Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Posts Second-Biggest Percentage Drop in Its History
As reported on Coindesk, “A key measure of competition among Bitcoin miners just dropped by 15.95 percent – the second-largest decline in the network’s history. “The drop in so-called mining difficulty signals some miners have bowed out of the ongoing race to solve math problems to win freshly minted bitcoin (BTC), as a decline in the cryptocurrency’s price […]
As reported on Coindesk, “A key measure of competition among Bitcoin miners just dropped by 15.95 percent – the second-largest decline in the network’s history.
“The drop in so-called mining difficulty signals some miners have bowed out of the ongoing race to solve math problems to win freshly minted bitcoin (BTC), as a decline in the cryptocurrency’s price has made this activity less profitable. That said, the drop could work in favor for those who have chosen to stay in the game as less competition means individual miners would gain a bigger cut in Bitcoin’s daily mining output.
“The world’s largest blockchain network by market capitalization adjusted its mining difficulty around 3:00 UTC on March 26 to 13.91 trillion (T), down from 16.55 T in the previous cycle recorded on March 9. Two weeks ago, bitcoin suffered its worst sell-off in seven years, and it has only partially recovered since.
“Mining requires powerful, specialized computers that consume copious amounts of electricity, and these businesses typically pay those hefty bills by selling or borrowing against their bitcoin.
“The price drop has erased all gains in Bitcoin’s computing power from the last three months, pushing it back to the level seen around Dec. 20. The situation was weighing especially on mining operators that have been running with older equipment such as Bitmain’s AntMiner S9 and other equivalent models…”