Blocks

Bitcoin Difficulty Touches All-Time High, 120 Exahash of Hashpower Remains Strong

13/07/2020 by Idelto Editor

The network difficulty for the Bitcoin network spiked over 9.8% on Monday bringing the difficulty to its highest point ever. The record high of 17.35 trillion makes it much harder for bitcoin miners to profit. However, the overall Bitcoin network hashrate has remained consistently above the 120 exahash per second (EH/s) zone.

On July 13, 2020, the Bitcoin (BTC) network saw it’s largest difficulty metric ever, as it touched the 17.35 trillion mark on Monday. Basically, difficulty is the value used to measure how difficult it is to find a hash below a target defined by the Bitcoin network.

The network has a global block difficulty and validated blocks must have a hash below the given target. Essentially the lower the difficulty, the easier it is to find blocks on the BTC network, and the higher the difficulty means acquiring bitcoins via mining is much harder. The difficulty changes every two weeks depending on hashrate speed or approximately every 2016 blocks.

The Bitcoin (BTC) network sees the highest difficulty jump ever.

The 17.35 trillion is the highest the difficulty has ever been, which means it is the most difficult time ever to mine bitcoins right now. Moreover, it was only just recently on May 11, 2020, when the block reward was cut in half, and miners saw 50% revenue losses overnight.

Now the upwards spike in difficulty over 9.8% wasn’t as large as the 14.95% jump on June 16, 2020. However, at that time the difficulty was only 15.78 trillion. The second-largest difficulty height happened three days before the grueling March 12 market crisis, otherwise known as ‘Black Thursday.’

The Bitcoin (BTC) network hashrate continues to climb higher.

Despite the jump in difficulty to 17.35 trillion, the overall BTC global hashrate has remained high above the 120 EH/s range. There are 16 unique mining pools hashing away at the BTC network and the top mining pool is F2pool.

This is followed by operations such as Poolin, Btc.com, Antpool, and Huobi respectively. F2pool’s hashpower is roughly 16% of the network while Poolin has a touch over 15%. The latter three pools have around 10% or more of the entire BTC global hashrate.

The hashrate increase has bitcoiners discussing the mining difficulty situation via social media and crypto forums. Many are conversing about the overall security of the BTC network and whether or not the hashrate will drop or rise from here.

If the overall BTC hashrate continues to climb higher, then the difficulty will rise again in two weeks’ time. If there is a substantial exodus of miners shutting down machines temporarily, then the difficulty will drop after the next 2016 blocks are consumed.

What do you think about the Bitcoin network’s difficulty jumping to its highest metric ever? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

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Craig Wright Submits List of Bitcoin Addresses to the Court – Roster Contains Spent Blocks

22/05/2020 by Idelto Editor

On May 21, 2020, the infamous Craig Wright, the man who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, submitted a list of blocks and bitcoin addresses to the court that stem from the alleged Tulip Trust. However, armchair sleuths and blockchain analysis shows that a few blocks recorded in Wright’s recently filed list have been spent.

Craig Wright Files a New List of Bitcoin Blocks and Addresses That Allegedly Belong to the Tulip Trust(s)

The ongoing Kleiman vs. Wright lawsuit is heating up once again, as Craig Wright submitted a list on May 21, that allegedly belongs to the infamous Tulip Trust(s). The Kleiman estate, specifically Ira Kleiman represents the now deceased David Kleiman. Kleiman who was also known as ‘Dave,’ was a security researcher that some believe may have been a member of a pseudonymous group operating under the Satoshi Nakamoto moniker.

According to Ira Kleiman, his brother David’s inheritance was manipulated during a multi-year partnership with Australian native Craig Wright. The Tulip Trust is an alleged trust that claims to have 1.1 million BTC from mining bitcoins in the early days. Throughout the two year lawsuit filled with depositions and discovery, the judge asked Wright to produce a list several times. The list submitted on Thursday, is the third list filed during the lawsuit and cryptocurrency detectives are already scrutinizing the addresses and blocks.

The Three Lists Contain Spent Blocks and ‘None of the Lists Contain Any Blocks That Are Well-Known to Have Been Mined and Spent by Satoshi Nakamoto’

“All three lists have recently spent blocks in them, when Wright testified that the keys are inaccessible,” explains a Reddit post written on Friday, which studies the list in great detail. The Redditor notes that after the first list (CW list) and another grouping of addresses called the ‘Shadders list,’ the judge gave Wright one more chance to give the court a better list.

This led to the ‘bonded courier’ theory and allegedly the courier showed up and provided Wright with the necessary information. The Redditor also notes there is a list called the ‘DK list’ which belongs to the plaintiffs. “None of the four lists (Shadder’s List, CW list, DK list, CSW list) contain any blocks that are well-known to have been mined and spent by Satoshi, including block 9,” the armchair sleuth wrote. The individual further stated:

Again, as the CW list is a forgery, and the [recent] CSW filed list is obviously derived from it, the CSW filed List is also a forgery. To bring this all back to the early block that was spent yesterday, it was included in the Shadder’s List. At this point, we don’t know whether it was in any of the other three lists. However, it’s not particularly important, since the Shadders list, CW list, and CSW filed list already have recently spent blocks.

Essentially, the Redditor and other crypto proponents following the case, believe that Craig Wright’s latest address and block submission is another fake. The first Reddit post called “A primer on Craig Wright’s claimed blocks, Tulip Trust(s), and list of addresses” finds three definitive faults with the three lists submitted to the Florida court. “The Shadder’s List – a bug-ridden list made in 2019 meant to simply narrow down the blocks that could potentially belong to Wright,” the post stresses.

“CW List – a list produced by the ‘Trust” that is an obvious forgery derived from the Shadders List, [and] the CSW filed List – the list submitted by Wright to the court [on May 21, 2020], which is supposed to be an accurate list of his actual mined bitcoin. This is also an obvious forgery based on the CW List (and the Shadder’s List). It was supposedly made around 2010,” the post concludes.

What do you think about the recent list Craig Wright submitted to the court on Thursday? Let us know in the comments below.

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Bitcoin Halving Searches Surge – Phrase Touches Google Trends All-Time High

21/04/2020 by Idelto Editor

The notorious bitcoin halving is expected to happen in 20 days either on or around May 12, 2020. The anticipation leading up to the event is at an all-time high, as last week worldwide queries for the phrase “bitcoin halving” using Google peaked with a top score of 100. On Tuesday, Google Trends shows the phrase is still surging holding a score of 90 over 100 during the last 24 hours.

The Phrase ‘Bitcoin Halving’ Rises Exponentially on Google Trends

Every four years or 210,000 blocks, the network Satoshi Nakamoto created, experiences a block reward halving. When miners hash away at the BTC blockchain they are rewarded fresh coins every ten minutes when they find a block. Today, any miner who happens to find a BTC block gets 12.5 virgin coins that have never been in circulation. After the bitcoin halving in 20 days or on or around May 12, miners will get half the reward and obtain 6.25 BTC per block found. This mathematical and predictable system Nakamoto created, makes it so BTC is scarce and hard to come by going forward. Today BTC’s issuance has a per annum inflation rate of around 3.6% but after May 12, the inflation rate will drop to 1.8%.

At the time of publication, there is 18,337,650 BTC in circulation and there will only be 21 million BTC issued. With the halving approaching with a quickness, searches about the subject have skyrocketed during the last three weeks. This week (April 19-25), the query for the phrase “bitcoin halving” is hovering around a 90 out of 100. During the week of April 5-11, the phrase touched an all-time high at 100, which is the highest score a subject can obtain on Google Trends.

The reason the upward trend of searches about the bitcoin halving subject is so high is because cryptocurrency participants worldwide are curious about what will happen next. Additionally, while many crypto veterans have experienced two previous halvings, some people are just learning about the subject today.

Institutional Investors Interested in the Bitcoin Halving and Great Expectations

Recently, a survey conducted by Genesis Mining explained that more than 50% of mining participants think the price of BTC will increase after the halving. Some studies estimate that the price has to rise to at least above $12,500 per BTC post-halving. Moreover, owners of large ASIC mining facilities are concerned about the upcoming bitcoin halving and mining rig shipment delays from China. While the world’s economy is in turmoil and the price of a barrel of crude oil dropped -305% on April 20.

More signs of institutional involvement in #bitcoin. We are seeing more sophisticated players embrace this new asset class as #bitcoin continues its #QuantitativeHardening

Flagship Renaissance fund dabbles with bitcoin https://t.co/N320QtHsof via @financialtimes

— Brian Kelly (@BKBrianKelly) April 18, 2020

Reports also note that institutional investors have a fever for the bitcoin halving and point to the firm Renaissance Technologies and its mega-hedge fund called Medallion. Renaissance established the Medallion fund in 1988 and it is one of the most profitable portfolios worldwide. A recent regulatory filing submitted just before the bitcoin halving shows that Renaissance is now “permitted to enter into bitcoin futures transactions.”

What do you think about the bitcoin halving coming up in 20 days? Let us know in the comments below.

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The Bitcoin Cash Network’s Block Reward Officially Halved – Block 630,000 Mined

08/04/2020 by Idelto Editor

On April 8, 2020, the Bitcoin Cash network’s block reward halved as of block 630,000 and BCH miners hashing away at the network will now capture only 6.25 coins per block going forward, instead of 12.5. The BCH halving is the first major SHA256 branch to halve its block reward, as BSV and BTC will halve as well within the next 30 days. Now that the BCH halving has slashed the current block reward, BCH proponents will be focused on the cryptocurrency’s price, hashrate, and the network’s difficulty.

Also read: 5% Over Spot: Gold-Backed Tokens Tether Gold and Digix Sell for Higher Premiums

Bitcoin Cash Miner Revenue Chops in Half – 12.5 to 6.25 Coins per Block

So far, roughly 87.6% of all 21 million BCH that will ever be produced has been mined into existence. There’s still 2.6 million BCH left to mine and since the halving after block 630,000 the issuance rate is halved. When Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin, the inventor designed it so over time it would be harder to obtain bitcoins by mining, which ultimately bolsters the cryptocurrency’s scarcity and inflation rate. Currently, the BCH hashrate hasn’t changed much and it’s remained steady at 3.4-3.7 exahash per second (EH/s). BCH is trading for $266 per coin at the time of publication, while the inflation rate per annum has changed from 3.6% to 1.8%. The mining operation Antpool mined the official halving block #630,000 getting only 6.25 BCH when the pool found the block.

Coindance statistics show that it is currently 2.7% more profitable to mine the BCH chain compared to BTC. There are at least nine BCH miners hashing away at the BCH chain including Antpool, Btc.com, Btc.top, Viabtc, SBI Crypto, Huobi, Pool.Bitcoin.com, Poolin and P2p Pool. Another 7.6% of the hashrate is contributed by stealth miners. It is 302% more expensive to transact on the BTC chain today and the BTC blockchain is 124.5GB larger than the BCH chain. Before the halving, BCH miners obtained 1,800 BCH ($468K) per day (approx. 144 blocks), but now miners will only get 900 coins ($234K) per day plus fees. At the time of publication, the current BCH difficulty is hovering over the 531 billion mark.

63 Bitcoin Cash Halvings Remain

Overall the Bitcoin Cash community has been waiting for the momentous halving day and many supporters have shown excitement during the last few weeks. Of course, the coronavirus outbreak has made it so halving parties are not as prominent as they were in 2016. Certainly there’s a number of BCH supporters celebrating online and through virtual communications. The Future of Bitcoin Cash is hosting a virtual meetup today from 10:30 to 16:30 UTC on Zoom in order to discuss the BCH halving. “Join Bitcoin Cash builders, businesses and evangelists as we discuss the future of BCH online during the block reward halving,” the official Twitter account tweeted.

Join us Wed Apr 8 from 10:30 AM UTC for a $BCH community livestream event!

Together, we’ll discuss the future of #BitcoinCash

Information and links at https://t.co/URVLQhSRFd pic.twitter.com/x2lIQ8UAsf

— The Future of Bitcoin Cash (@TheFutureofBCH) April 6, 2020

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts will be watching BCH closely and the three factors mentioned above (price, hashrate, and difficulty) extra carefully so. There still could be volatile price action and changes to the hashrate and difficulty in the next few months going forward.

The Bitcoin Cash Network's Block Reward Officially Halved - Block 630,000 Mined — 1,458 days until the next BCH halving and 63 halvings left.

Bitcoin Cash will have 63 more halvings as the years go by and the network continues to progress. Markets are far from perfect, and it’s anyone’s guess what will happen, but we do know the system is far superior compared to the likes of central banks and fractional banking practices.

What do you think about the Bitcoin Cash halving? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Bitcoin Mining Investment Strong – BTC Hashrate Surpasses All-Time High

02/03/2020 by Idelto Editor

On Monday, March 2, miners processing blocks on the BTC network surpassed the network’s all-time high as the overall hashrate touched 136 exahash (EH/s). The record-breaking achievement happened despite the price of BTC dropping below the $9K region throughout the course of the last week. In four years’ time, BTC’s hashrate has risen over 13,500% and it doesn’t look like slowing up anytime soon.

Also read: 13 Crypto Debit Cards You Can Use Right Now

BTC’s Hashrate Between 136-145EH/s on Monday

Since the innovative payment network Bitcoin was invented, the hashrate has always been an indicator of security and the network’s overall wellbeing. Essentially, a hash is the output of a hash function applied to the Bitcoin software. When bitcoin miners are searching for blocks they leverage their processing power (hashrate) in order to increase their chances of acquiring freshly minted coins. The overall hashrate combined, meaning all the processing power between all the participating miners on the Bitcoin network, is basically the estimated measurement of how many hash functions are used in order to find a block. At the end of January 2016, the BTC network touched one exahash per second (EH/s). Since then, the hashrate has increased exponentially capturing 136EH/s on March 2, 2020. Blockchain.com and Fork.lol charts show BTC’s hashrate averages to be between 136 to 145EH/s.

In the last few years, Bitcoin mining investments have been strong and there’s been a number of new mining data centers added worldwide. For instance, the Peter Thiel-backed mining operation Layer1 recently started mining in West Texas. The company raised more than $50 million from investors like Peter Thiel, Digital Currency Group, and Shasta Ventures. Layer1 aims to scale operations to 200MW this year and there are many others in Texas mining as well. Last year, Bitmain revealed it would build a 300MW facility in Rockdale, Texas and started operations with 25MW.

During the second week of February 2020, Riot Blockchain revealed it had purchased 1,000+ Bitmain miners for its data center in Oklahoma. Riot Blockchain’s mine aims to capture 300MW of hashpower as well and the firm said the new batch of miners would be turned on immediately. Even smaller operations are investing in the industry, as this February Xtra Bitcoin announced the creation of a 2.5 MW facility with plans to increase to 10MW. Digihost claims to have a 70,000 square foot operation in Buffalo, New York with 12,895 bitcoin mining rigs (17.5 MW of computing power). New mining operations are popping up in Central Asia, the U.S., Canada, and many other nation-states which are fueling the rising hashrate.

Additionally, other SHA256 networks have seen an increase in hashrate, as Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has jumped from 1EH/s to 3.5-5EH/s, gathering a 400% increase since December 2018. Bitcoin SV (BSV) had around 1.3EH/s in December 2018 and that has expanded 130% to roughly 2.5-3EH/s in 2020. All three of these networks make up the overall SHA256 hashrate, which is one of the largest computational networks ever created. Satoshi Nakamoto launching the BTC network in 2009 has led to the significant advancement in Exascale computing. But people often wonder what an exahash is and all the other funny terms bitcoiners use like kilohash, megahash, gigahash, terahash, and petahash.

The Exahash Era Continues

A kilohash (1 kH/s) is 1,000 hashes per second, one megahash (MH/s) is approximately one million hashes per second, a gigahash (GH/s) is one billion hashes per second, a single terahash (TH/s) equals one trillion hashes per second, and one petahash (PH/s) is a quadrillion hashes per second. When we start measuring the hashrate in exahashes per second (EH/s), it is approximately one quintillion hashes per second. Right now, BTC’s network hashrate is roughly less than a quarter of the way toward reaching the zetahash (ZH/s) era, which is a whopping one sextillion hashes per second or 500 exahash. At 140EH/s, every second of the day the BTC network hashes 20x the number of grains of sand on earth, which is roughly estimated at 7.5 quintillion grains.

The 136-145EH/s record is quite a milestone and every time the network’s hashrate grows larger it makes it much harder to cheat the system. For instance a few minutes ago the mining operation Poolin found block 619845 and if a malicious miner wanted to alter block 619800, the miner would have to work on altering 45 blocks of extremely expensive computing (Proof-of-Work) with a one-hour attack cost of $775,936 at the time of writing. The malicious miner would need to expend around $18,622,461 during the course of a 24-hour period and meanwhile competing against all the honest miners processing the next blocks. Every time an honest miner finds another block it puts the attacker behind significantly, making it very expensive for miners to deviate from the rules.

Many speculators believe that the increased hashrate means that miners wholeheartedly believe in the future of SHA256 networks like BTC. Miners dedicate significant amounts of money to validate transactions in order to acquire 12.5 bitcoins and all the fees tied to the block’s transactions. In two months, all three SHA256 networks will see the network’s block subsidy chopped in half and miners dedicating hash toward BTC, BCH and BSV will only get 6.25 coins plus the fees.

The increase in combined computing power shows these entities have a lot of skin in the game, especially when estimates say BTC miners will need prices to be over $12,000 per BTC after the halving. So far, the BTC network has seen a natural progression of miners increasing the hashrate and there hasn’t been a major miner capitulation in over a decade. After the BTC halving occurs, all eyes will be watching the hashrate going forward as the metric has always been a solid indicator of the network’s overall security and growth.

What do you think about BTC’s hashrate touching between 136-145EH/s on March 2? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Bitcoin.com, Fork.lol, Fair Use, Bitmain Miners, Coin Metrics, Bitinfocharts.com, Coin.dance, Pixabay, and Blockchain.com charts.

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