Mining Pools

Bitcoin’s Mining Difficulty Rises for the First Time in 57 Days, BTC Hashrate Slipped 1.7% Lower in Q2

04/08/2022 by Idelto Editor

The mining difficulty tied to the Bitcoin network increased for the first time in 57 days, rising 1.74% higher than the last two weeks. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s hashrate has been below average as the network’s computational power is down 1.7% lower in the second quarter than in Q1 2022. After reaching 292 exahash per second (EH/s) on June 8, Bitcoin’s hashrate today is coasting along below the 200 EH/s mark at 182 EH/s.

Bitcoin’s Difficulty Increases, Making It More Difficult to Discover Block Rewards for the Next 2 Weeks

Following the three consecutive difficulty adjustment algorithm (DAA) reductions over the last six weeks, the DAA has shifted upwards for the first time since June 8. On August 4, at block height 747,936, the difficulty increased by 1.74%, bringing the metric up from 27.69 trillion to the current 28.20 trillion.

The DAA, or difficulty epoch, changes every 2,016 blocks or roughly every two weeks. The DAA increases when the 2,016 blocks are discovered too fast and the metric decreases when the discovery time is too slow. Satoshi Nakamoto’s design makes it so roughly every ten minutes, a new BTC block is found as the DAA system is modeled by a Poisson distribution scheme.

Since the 1.74% increase on Thursday, it is now harder to find a bitcoin block than it was during the last two weeks. Prior to the rise, the DAA shifted downwards three times in a row after June 8. Currently, the network’s 28.20 trillion difficulty metric is 9.76% lower than the all-time high in mid-May when it tapped 31.25 million.

With lower BTC prices and the latest difficulty increase, the changes could affect miners negatively during the next two weeks. At press time, the network’s computational power is under the 200 EH/s zone, as it’s coasting along at 182 EH/s today.

The overall Bitcoin hashrate slipped 1.7% lower in Q2 2022 compared to the first quarter, according to statistics compiled by stockapps.com’s fintech expert Edith Muthoni. “In the second half of the second quarter, Bitcoin’s overall hash rate grew more irregular and variable,” Muthoni notes in her research. “This behavior indicates miners are struggling to adapt to the changing market conditions.”

At 182 EH/s, Bitcoin’s hashrate is 37% lower than the 292 EH/s all-time high posted on June 8. Second quarter data indicates that Foundry USA was the top mining pool, capturing 22.27% of Q2’s overall hashrate. Foundry discovered 2,843 BTC blocks out of the 12,766 blocks found in Q2.

Antpool followed Foundry with 14.77% of the global hashrate as the pool discovered 1,885 blocks during the three-month period. The third largest mining pool in Q2 2022 was F2pool, with 14.31% of the global hashrate, as it mined 1,827 out of the 12,766 blocks discovered in the second quarter.

What do you think about Bitcoin’s difficulty rising 1.74% higher? Let us know your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below.

Foundry Digital Donates 1 BTC To Developer Working On Bitcoin Mining Pools

03/08/2022 by Idelto Editor

The developer will work on a sub-protocol of Stratum V2, a communications protocol meant to improve miner collaboration, increasing the global hash rate.

Foundry Digital has donated 1 BTC to a pseudonymous open-source developer – 4ss0.
The developer is working on Stratum V2, a communication protocol for miners and mining pools.
Specifically, the developer will improve the decentralization of block templates and strengthen censorship resistance on the protocol.

Foundry Digital, an institutional service provider for bitcoin mining, has donated 1 BTC to a pseudonymous developer in the bitcoin ecosystem by the name of 4ss0, who is working on Stratum V2, according to a press release.

Stratum V2 is an open-source communications protocol that allows miners, their proxies, and mining pools to better communicate with one another enabling larger contributions to the global hashrate of the Bitcoin network. The protocol seeks to provide higher levels of efficiency, security and decentralization to the proof-of-work consensus mechanism powering Bitcoin.

Stratum V2 changes the default messaging format from JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) to binary with an added encryption feature, thereby improving communication on the existing Stratum protocol. However, while this functionality is important, 4ss0 will actually be dedicating their time to the Job Negotiation Protocol (JNP).

JNP is a sub-protocol within Stratum that enables bitcoin miners to create their own block templates. These templates allow for streamlined cooperation by setting predefined attributes for participating miners while strengthening censorship resistance by decentralizing the creation of block templates.

“The Job Negotiator implementation will increase the decentralization of pool mining, enabling miners to mine their chosen transactions while preventing the censorship of transaction propagation by pools,” said 4ss0. “This will further allow people around the world to benefit from Bitcoin’s borderless freedom.”

In addition to Foundry’s donation, the company will offer 4ss0 access to bitcoin mining application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and hash rate data provided by the Foundry USA Pool team for testing purposes.

“The bitcoin mining industry has evolved rapidly in the past two years, while the underlying protocol that coordinates the miner and the pool has stayed stagnant,” said Jay Beddict, VP of research at Foundry. “Foundry views Stratum V2 as a major improvement to the current Stratum protocol and is aligned with our mission of empowering decentralized infrastructure.”

Study: Amid Mining Bans, China Still Commands World’s Second-Largest Share of Bitcoin Hashrate

17/05/2022 by Idelto Editor

New data stemming from the latest Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) report on bitcoin mining indicates that China still holds the second position in terms of global hashrate. While China commands close to 22% of Bitcoin’s global hashrate, the United States currently dominates with 37.69%, according to CCAF researchers.

China Is Still the World’s Second-Largest Concentration of Bitcoin Miners

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance updated the organization’s bitcoin mining data and map in order to highlight 2022 hashrate statistics. In July 2021, Bitcoin.com News reported on the CCAF’s data that showed China’s hashrate dropping by 46%.

At the time, China’s government enforced a ban on bitcoin mining and a great deal of the country’s miners re-located. However, the latest CCAF stats show China’s hashrate is still very prominent as the country is the second-largest leader in terms of global hashpower dedicated to the Bitcoin (BTC) network.

The study’s authors believe the miners located in China are likely leveraging virtual private networks (VPNs) to conceal their locations. The report indicates that China’s share of the overall Bitcoin network hashrate was 21.11%.

CCAF’s data derives from the organization’s partner mining pools Foundry, Poolin, Viabtc, and Btc.com. Moreover, some of the hashrate stemming from China did not leverage VPNs and CCAF’s researchers believe those miners are comfortable with their locations unhidden.

Unites States Dominates Bitcoin’s Global Hashrate by More Than 37%

CCAF’s report notes that a “non-trivial” quantity of Chinese miners may have thought the ban wasn’t a big deal. “It is probable that a non-trivial share of Chinese miners quickly adapted to the new circumstances and continued operating covertly while hiding their tracks using foreign proxy services to deflect attention and scrutiny.”

Following CCAF’s updated data in July and October 2021, a CNBC report noted that unnamed sources told the reporter MacKenzie Sigalos that bitcoin miners were still located in China. China’s hashrate is sizable compared to a great number of other countries, however, the U.S. still dominates Bitcoin’s global hashrate by 37.69%.

CCAF’s data from last July showed the U.S. captured 16.8% of the global hashrate last year. If CCAF’s data is correct, that would mean the U.S. hashrate has climbed 124.34% since July 2021. Pool distribution metrics match with CCAF’s data as the mining pool Foundry USA has captured 19.5% of the global hashrate during the last three months. 13,182 blocks were mined during the three-month period and Foundry USA found 2,566 of them.

What do you think about the latest CCAF data that shows close to 22% of the world’s Bitcoin hashrate still resides in China? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Hits a Lifetime High After a 5.56% Increase, Metric Nears 30 Trillion

27/04/2022 by Idelto Editor

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty reached a lifetime high on April 27, at block height 733,824, after jumping 5.56% higher than two weeks ago. The difficulty jump further indicates that Bitcoin’s difficulty is also nearing 30 trillion, as the change on Wednesday shows the current difficulty is 29.79 trillion.

It Is Now the Most Difficult Time in History to Mine Bitcoin After the Last Difficulty Increase

On Wednesday, April 27, 2022, after block 733,824 was mined, it is now the most difficult time in history to mine bitcoin (BTC). Currently, and for the next two weeks, Bitcoin’s difficulty will be 29.79 trillion until the next difficulty adjustment.
Bitcoin’s hashrate today is running high at 252.39 exahash per second (EH/s) after reaching an all-time high on April 23, 2022, at block 733,197. At that time, the hashrate tapped a high of 271.19 EH/s.
While the estimation could very well change over the next two weeks, the network’s difficulty is estimated to drop 0.07% during the next difficulty adjustment. On April 14, bitcoin miners caught a break when the difficulty dropped by 1.26% at block height 731,808.
The estimated hashrate over the last 90 days was 201.8 EH/s the next difficulty retarget is expected to happen on or around May 10, 2022. Using today’s BTC exchange rates, the current block subsidy of 6.25 BTC is roughly $245,531.
At the time of writing, there are 106,167 blocks left until the next halving occurs, which means almost half the time in between each halving has occurred. In roughly 48 hours, the halfway point up until the halving, in terms of block count will take place.
The halving is expected to occur on or around April 27, 2024. Miners will see the block subsidy halved from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC after that point in time.

On April 27, 2022, and over the last three days, Foundry USA has been the top miner capturing 87 of the 473 blocks mined in that timeframe. Foundry commands 18.39% of the global hashrate or 41.05 EH/s.
Foundry is followed by Antpool, in terms of three-day pool statistics, as Antpool found 75 blocks out of the 473 blocks mined. Antpool’s hashrate is 15.86% of the global processing power or roughly 35.39 EH/s.

What do you think about Bitcoin’s difficulty jumping 5.56% higher and nearing the 30 trillion mark? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Bitcoin’s Hashrate Surges Reaching a Lifetime High, Difficulty Expected to Jump Next Week

24/04/2022 by Idelto Editor

Bitcoin’s hashrate tapped a lifetime high this weekend reaching 271.19 exahash per second (EH/s) on Saturday, April 23 at block height 733,197. Currently, the computational power is coasting along at 233.81 EH/s with a network difficulty change expected three days from now on April 27.

Bitcoin’s Hashrate Records an All-Time High, Hashpower Increased 55% Higher Since January

The processing power that confirms transactions and secures the Bitcoin (BTC) network has reached an all-time high (ATH) on Saturday, April 23. The hashrate touched 271.19 EH/s, which is approximately 271,190 petahash per second (PH/s) or 271,190,000,000,000,000,000 hashes per second (H/s).

Bitcoin’s hashpower has never been higher than this point in history and since block height 717,696 or January 8, 2022, the hashrate’s record high is an increase of 55.48% since then. The processing power backing the Bitcoin network reached an ATH of 246 EH/s on February 12, prior to the all-time high recorded on Saturday.

Following a downward difficulty adjustment algorithm (DAA) change at block height 731,808, which saw the difficulty drop by 1.26%, the network is expected to see a DAA increase in roughly three days. Because the hashrate is running at such high speeds, the DAA is expected to increase by 3.21%.

If the estimated DAA increase of 3.21% comes to fruition, Bitcoin’s network difficulty will jump from the current 28.23 trillion to a lifetime high of 29.13 trillion. Presently, on Sunday afternoon (ET), a block subsidy reward worth 6.25 BTC is currently valued at $247,063 using today’s bitcoin exchange rates.

As Bitcoin’s hashpower tapped an ATH on Saturday, over the last three days, the top mining pool was Foundry USA capturing 22.55% of the global hashrate. Statistics show that Foundry’s 47.89 EH/s has allowed the pool to find 106 out of the past 470 blocks found by 13 pools. The second-largest bitcoin miner below Foundry USA was Binance Pool with 12.98% or 27.56 EH/s of hashpower.

While statistics show that bitcoin’s price has not had the best first quarter in 2022, the hashrate increasing by more than 55% since that time is quite the feat. Metrics indicate that BTC’s current value is profitable to mine using most ASIC devices with 25 TH/s or more. At press time, the Bitmain Antminer S19 Pro (110 TH/s) mining rig with $0.12 per kilowatt-hour in electrical costs will see an estimated profit of $10.23 per day.

What do you think about Bitcoin’s hashrate touching a lifetime high of 271 EH/s on Saturday? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.