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Bitcoin Hashrate Slides 33% Since Halving – Difficulty Drops, Issues in Sichuan China

22/05/2020 by Idelto Editor

It’s been 11 days since the third bitcoin block reward halving. Data now shows that the overall SHA256 hashrate lost around 47 exahash per second (EH/s), since the all-time high of 140 EH/s on May 3. With more than 33% of the hashrate lost, reports stemming from Sichuan China indicate that bitcoin mining operations have been dealing with electrical shortages, and some operations have been forced to shut down machines.

Bitcoin Hashrate Lost 47 Exahash of Hashrate Since the ATH, Difficulty Sees a 6% Downward Adjustment

Just before the third bitcoin halving, which cut miner revenue by 50%, the overall BTC hashrate spiked to around 140 EH/s on May 3, 2020. The network hit this monumental milestone, seven days before the notorious block reward halving. After the halving was complete, observers noted that the hashrate only dipped by 10-15% around 48 hours later. However, hashrate charts and data have some significant lag, and most of the time hashrate is measured in 3-12 hour intervals.

Bitcoin Hashrate Slides by 33% Since Halving - Difficulty Drops, Issues in — May 20, 2020, Blockchain.com BTC hashrate stats.

For instance, Blockchain.com statistics show the BTC hashrate is 93 EH/s on May 20. Fork.lol data shows that the hashrate has dropped even lower to just above 80 EH/s during certain periods, between May 20 until May 22. From the all-time high (ATH) on May 3, the BTC chain has lost 47 EH/s so far or roughly 33% since the ATH.

The BTC network difficulty also dropped by 6% on May 20, 2020, and whenever the difficulty drops it can be attributed to miners leaving the network. Additionally, the price of BTC has dropped from a high of $9,900 to a low of 9,100 on May 22. When the price of BTC drops lower in value it makes it more difficult for miners to prosper. Even the first signs of miners dropping off the network, meant a downward adjustment was in the cards for BTC’s overall mining difficulty. Today there are 17 known mining pools processing blocks on the BTC network. The top five BTC mining pools include F2pool, Poolin, Antpool, Btc.com, and Okex. F2pool on May 22, 2020 shows that it currently commands 27% of the BTC network hashrate.

Sichuan Miners Face Delayed Wet Season, Electrical Shortages, and Kickback from Local Governments

One reason miners may be dropping off the network is due to issues in the Chinese province of Sichuan right now. There are two reports written by the regional financial columnist, lylian Teng, that show miners in the Sichuan region have a number of difficulties to deal with at the moment. One issue is the fact that the temperature in Sichuan has been hotter than usual which has been deterring the start of the region’s massive wet season.

The wet season every year, helps fuel hydropower plants that are located all around the province of Sichuan. Chinese bitcoin miners have always flocked to Sichuan, and the region is probably one of the most densely populated mining operation locations worldwide. lylian Teng reports that the local Sichuan government has been complaining that the region’s electrical load has increased by 22%.

There has been a “shortfall of hydroelectricity supply,” the report notes. This issue has led to electrical shortages and some mining operations have had to shut down machines. Teng discussed the subject with local mining operations who have told her that the “rainy season this year has delayed and the prolonged high temperatures in Sichuan have led to a surge in electricity demand.”

“Some mines have got power cut for over three days, and some are only allowed to mine during the night,” explains a mining farm owner who operates in Sichuan. “Areas close to Sichuan’s capital city Chengdu like Wenchuan are suffering from severe power outages, while remote places like Ya’an and Kangding, with small electricity demand and sufficient rainfall, see few power failures,” the miner added.

Another report notes that bitcoin mining in the province may be “attracting too much attention” and assumes a government “crackdown” could come to fruition. A leaked Sichuan government document indicates that local officials believe bitcoin miners are taking advantage of the region’s cheap electricity.

“The notice has since surfaced which indicates that the province’s top finance regulator, Sichuan Financial Office has requested local governments to make an orderly exit from supporting bitcoin mining,” lylian Teng’s second report discloses. Teng’s findings further state:

The notice reportedly issued to all local offices of the financial regulator went on to request that regional governments use mandatory measures around power supply, electricity price, land use, taxation and environment protection to ensure existing bitcoin mining activities are phased out.

Documents that allegedly stem from China’s Sichuan province and obtained by the regional reporter lylian Teng. Document one (left) discusses the electrical shortages, and document two (right) talks about regulating bitcoin mining operations.

There’s a lot of mixed messages when it comes to the local Chinese governments and bitcoin mining rules. The latest news on alleged crackdowns in Sichuan, follows the report that had shown the local government of Ya’an city in China’s Sichuan province, was encouraging bitcoin mining throughout the province. In 2018, however, Sichuan lawmakers had an entirely different opinion and a number of statements published or leaked had shown a few Sichuan politicians called mining operations “wasteful” and discouraged the business.

What do you think about the hashrate drop and issues in China’s Sichuan province? Let us know in the comments below.

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Bitcoin Network Sees a Massive Mining Pool Shift Following the Halving

14/05/2020 by Idelto Editor

Following the third bitcoin halving on May 11, 2020, there’s been a big shift in mining pool distribution, as far as hashrate is concerned. At the time of publication, there’s around 100-115 exahash per second (EH/s) in search of bitcoin blocks and spectators have seen two relatively unknown mining pools join the top mining pool contenders. Both of these new mining pools capture around 14 EH/s today, and the top operations F2pool and BTC.com have around 34 EH/s between both pools.

The last BTC halving saw a small amount of different network activity and every single mining operation lost 50% of revenue after the halving. A minuscule fraction of hashrate has left since the revenue cut, and BTC transaction (txn) fees have been on the rise. In the last 48 hours, a single BTC txn can cost a user between $2-4 depending on network congestion.

Another noticeable sight is the occurrence of extremely less stealth hash (unknown miners) than weeks ago and two relatively new mining operations. The two mining pools called 1Thash and Lubian.com have gained a lot of hashrate since the halving and both operations have captured around 14 EH/s since then.

Bitcoin hashrate distribution according to Btc.com’s pool stats on May 14, 2020. The picture at the very bottom of this article is the top 15 mining pools hashing away at the Bitcoin (BTC) network.

1Thash was known for some time now, but the pool had way less hashpower than it does today, as it captures 7.6% of the overall hashrate on May 14, 2020. Hashrate distribution statistics show that the pool Lubian.com mined its first coins at block height 627,441. Similarly to 1Thash, the operation also has 7.6% of today’s SHA256 hashrate on the BTC chain, and both of them control the fifth and sixth largest hashrate distribution positions.

According to the regional reporter Lylian Teng from 8btc, Lubian’s name means “roadside” and the website claims to be the “safest high yielding mining pool.” Teng also said that the local Chinese news outlet Blockbeats were the first to spot Lubian hashing away at the BTC chain, and they gave information to Btc.com for distribution statistics.

BTC hashrate distribution on February 3, 2020, according to Blockchain.com’s data. At the time there was more than 23% of stealth hash processing blocks on the BTC chain. BTC.com was the third largest and today it is the largest pool, and there were also far fewer pools during the first week of February 2020 as well.

Blockchain.com’s pool stat data still says “unknown” for Lubian’s position, but Btc.com statistics has both Lubian and 1Thash recorded. If Btc.com’s pool stats are correct, that would mean there is very little unknown hash stealth mining the BTC chain today. The data indicates that there are 15 known mining pools since the halving still hashing away. Pools include Btc.com, F2pool, Antpool, Poolin, 1Thash, Lubian, Viabtc, Huobi, Okex, Slush, Nova, Binance, Bitcoin.com, Spider, and Ukrpool.

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F2pool has also recently commanded the second-largest mining pool position by order of SHA256 hashpower in the race. The Chinese mining operation was also lucky enough to obtain the last 12.5 BTC block reward before the halving. Etched into the Coinbase message F2pool wrote:

NYTimes 09/Apr/2020 With $2.3T Injection, Fed’s Plan Far Exceeds 2008 Rescue.

Since then, news.Bitcoin.com reported on how the total value of block rewards and fees dropped from $17.16 million on May 12 to $8.95 million the very next day. So far, on Thursday three days after the halving, BTC’s price has spiked to the $9,900 region. However, at that point, the value corrected some and the price has been hovering between the $9,500 to $9,750 zone since then.

What do you think about the change in hashrate distribution since the reward halving? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Bitcoin Network Sees a Massive Mining Pool Shift Following the Halving appeared first on Bitcoin News.

65% of Global Bitcoin Hashrate Concentrated in China

07/05/2020 by Idelto Editor

A new bitcoin mining map by the University of Cambridge shows that China accounts for 65% of the world’s hash power. About half of the country’s hash rate is produced in just one place, the autonomous Xinjiang region, which makes up 35.76% of the global total.

Launched recently, the university’s Bitcoin Mining Map provides data on the average hash power generated by each country every month. Current statistics cover the period September 2019 to April 2020.

The map is based on geo-location data or IP addresses of hashers connecting to the Bitcoin (BTC) mining pools BTC.com, Poolin, and Via BTC. The pools represent around 37% of the total Bitcoin hash power.

Hash rate is a measure of the power of the computers linked to the Bitcoin network, which determines their ability to produce new coins.

According to the map, prepared by the University of Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), China’s hash power dwarfs that of the US nine-fold, with America accounting for just 7.24% of the global hash power total, a distant second place.

At 6.9%, Russia comes in third followed by Kazakhstan with 6.17%, Malaysia with 4.33%, and Iran with 3.82%. The rest of the world make up 6% of the hash rate.

Often saddled by huge power bills, cryptoccurency miners have flocked to China, lured by the promise of cheap renewable electricity. As per the map, the second largest concentration of hash power in China is in the Sichuan province, with 9.66%.

Inner Mongolia, Yunnan and the capital city of Beijing are key mining areas as well, accounting for 8.07%, 5.42%, and 1.73% of the national hashrate total, respectively.

CCAF admits that the sample that produced the hash power distribution map “may not be fully representative” because “it represents only a little more than a third of the total hashrate; and second, the data is provided by three Bitcoin mining pools that are all headquartered in China.”

To correct the seeming China bias, CCAF hopes to add data from major mining regions such as Siberia in Russia, Washington and New York States in the US, Québec and Alberta in Canada in upcoming reports.

What do you think about China’s dominance in hash power? Let us know in the comments section below.

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The Bitcoin Cash Halving Countdown – 50% Less Block Reward in 4 Days

04/04/2020 by Idelto Editor

The Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network will face a halving in four days and many BCH proponents are getting ready for the big day. Unfortunately, the covid-19 outbreak has overshadowed the halving and BCH has dropped in value by roughly 30% since the end of February.

Also Read: Bitcoin Halving Will Drop Inflation Rate Lower Than Central Banks’ 2% Target Reference

Bitcoin Cash Will Experience a Halving in 4 Days – Block Rewards to Drop by 50%

BCH supporters are getting ready for the big halving day, at least the best they can since most of the world has been stuck at home due to the coronavirus. So far, roughly 87.4% of the 21 million BCH available are in circulation and there’s around 18,366,500 BCH at the time of publication. Every four years, the BCH network sees a reward halving as the system’s rules are meant to make the issuance rate harder.

The Bitcoin Cash halving will take place in four days on or around Passover, April 8. Typically, there’s about 1,800 BCH mined per day, which gives the chain an inflation rate of 3.6%. Bitcoin cash miners finding a block on the BCH network today get approximately 12.5 BCH, but after the halving they will only get 6.25 coins.

The Bitcoin Cash network’s drop in issuance will change the inflation rate to an estimated 1.8% per annum. The mathematical and probable monetary system is a stark contrast to the unpredictable monetary system that the world’s central banks provide. Central banks, like the Federal Reserve, claim to keep the inflation rate at 2%, but reports from shadowstats.com note that the real U.S. rate could be as high as 10%. No one knows how bad the inflation rate will get now that central banks worldwide have started creating trillions in fiat currencies out of thin air.

The Fed’s schemes are completely different from the issuance rate Satoshi Nakamoto designed and the 1.8% per annum inflation rate for BCH will continue to get better. For instance, by the end of 2024, it is estimated that the BCH inflation rate will be around 1.1% and it will drop to 0.9% the very next year. By the end of 2028, around 20.5 million BCH should be mined by then and the inflation rate is expected to be about 0.5%.

Four days before the halving, there’s around 3.63 exahash per second (EH/s) mining the Bitcoin Cash chain. On Friday, there are 10 different mining pools hashing away at the BCH chain. This includes operations like Antpool, Viabtc, Bitcoin.com, Btc.top, P2pool, Huobi, Poolin, Mining-Dutch, Btc.com, and Prohashing. Antpool captures the most hashpower on April 3, with 32% of the overall hashrate, while 6.5% of the hashrate is mined by stealth miners.

Miners have about 8,500 coins left to mine and there are about 680 blocks left until the halving. BCH difficulty is around 486,638,039,618 and mining profitability between BTC and BCH has been less volatile lately. At the time of writing, it is 1.6% more profitable to mine the BTC blockchain and BTC miners face a halving in 39 days.

Interesting Times Ahead

BCH fans are excited about the upcoming halving and a number of proponents discussed the subject two days ago, when there were six days left until the halving. Electron Cash developer Calin Culianu (Nilac the grim) said that he hopes things work out for the best. “Lord help us make it through these all-around crazy times better than we were entering into them,” Culianu wrote. “Interesting times ahead indeed,” Reddit user Jackandjill22 responded. The following day, Poolin executive Alejandro De La Torre tweeted:

Only five days to go for the bitcoin cash halving. This is an event to monitor, might be indicative of what’s to come with the bitcoin halving.

With the covid-19 outbreak, it’s likely that there won’t be any Bitcoin Cash halving parties come April 8. Most people will be monitoring the BCH reward reduction from home and they will surely be watching the price and the hashrate after the halving kicks in. If you are interested in reading about specific halving countdown websites for every Bitcoin branch reward reduction, then check out this article on the subject.

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

The post The Bitcoin Cash Halving Countdown – 50% Less Block Reward in 4 Days appeared first on Bitcoin News.

BTC Hashrate Follows Price Drop – 20% Lower Before Bitcoin Halving

16/03/2020 by Idelto Editor

Four days ago, digital currency markets lost billions and prices sank to levels not seen since last March. The market bloodbath has affected bitcoin miners as they are making fewer profits than they were a week prior. By Monday, March 16, BTC’s hashrate slid below the 100 exahash (EH/s) territory and the BCH hashrate fell below 4 EH/s. Moreover, BCH has 22 days left until the block reward gets cut in half and there are 56 days until the BTC halving.

Also Read: Traders Flock to Tether, USDC, PAX – Stablecoins See Great Demand After Crypto Market Havoc

F2pool: ‘There’s Always a Lag in Hashrate Drops’

Cryptocurrency markets have lost a bunch of money during the last two weeks as more than $90 billion was erased from the market cap since the first week of March. At press time, BTC is hovering just below the $5K zone, while BCH is trading for $163 per coin. These prices have put intense pressure on miners hashing away at these two networks, and currently both networks have lost a good chunk of hashrate.

Hashrate Follows Price Drop - 20% Lower Before the Bitcoin Halving — Since the market dive on March 12, 2020, BTC’s hashrate slid roughly 20%. BCH hashrate is down to 3.5 to 3.8 EH/s after touching a 2020 high of 5 EH/s on February 20, 2020.

For instance, according to Coin.dance, the Bitcoin Cash network’s hashrate came awfully close to touching 5 EH/s during the third week of February, but on March 16 it’s between 3.5 to 3.8 EH/s. Similarly, up until March 11, BTC’s hashrate was around 120 EH/s but after the market rout on Thursday and the drop on Sunday, BTC’s hashrate is only around 97 EH/s. Both digital assets’ weekly price percentages are down between 33% (BCH) and 34% (BTC). The current prices might be too low for certain mining operations, which caused a small exodus of miners to leave the network.

The mining operation F2Pool commented on a recent article that noted BTC’s hashrate “barely flinched” when prices dropped to $3,600 on March 12. “However, we saw over the weekend the estimated difficulty change is trending downward,” F2Pool tweeted. “This means some miners are now switching off their machines. As always in mining, it’s the survival of the fittest: New Machines. Cheap Electricity. Low Rent.” F2Pool further stated:

The network hashrate has dropped from a peak of ~124 EH/s to ~102 EH/s, while the bitcoin price has dropped from $9,000 to $4,800. There is always a time lag for hashrate to decrease due to hosting contracts, and the time required for operators to turn off a large number of machines.

While Hashrate and Prices Dip, the Countdown to the Reward Halving Continues

BTC prices on March 16 are making it difficult for bitcoin miners to garner a profit depending on what they pay for electricity rates. For instance, miners paying $0.07 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) with today’s top machines that have 40-100 terahash per second (TH/s) are still profiting. 86 TH/s can make around $1.54 per day while 44 TH/s can make around $0.27 per day.

However, if one was to up the electric cost to $0.12 per kWh, then a machine with over 100TH/s could still lose $0.17 per day at today’s exchange rates. Further, both networks are facing block subsidy halvings, as each protocol halves every 210,000 blocks. BTC and BCH miners’ coinbase rewards will decrease from 12.5 to 6.25 coins in less than two months. The BTC halving is set to happen on or around May 12, or 56 days from now. BCH will halve earlier than that on or around April 8, or in 22 days.

Bitcoiners are still positive about the halving and a number of BTC supporters believe it will make the price rise. “Bitcoin usually recovers very quickly,” one individual tweeted on Monday. “It could be $1,000-2,000 next week and still easily be $6,000 by halving.” Other speculators are more negative and understand that if BTC prices don’t rise there could be severe consequences.

“Bitcoin simply can’t be worth what it is now or lower and survive the halving,” @Cryptomessiah noted. “$1000 bitcoin? Might as well bet on $0 bitcoin.” Another person tweeted:

The worst part about bitcoin right now is that crypto folks have already been through a nasty bear market from late 2017 and when we were just about to pull out of it we entered another as the traditional markets bleed out — The halving is my only hope right now.

While both BCH and BTC hashrates saw a decline, users can visualize miners capitulating by monitoring individual pools as well. For instance, Btc.com’s hashrate dipped by 10% and Poolin’s hash slipped by 15%. F2pool suffered a hashrate loss of 12% and Huobi’s mining pool saw the pool’s hash decline by 22% during the market downturn.

The overall SHA256 hashrate drop on Monday shows that miners need better prices in order to profit, but they will need even more value after the reward halving. For example, during the first week of February 2020, the research and analysis firm Tradeblock published a report that estimates the post-halving mining cost. The researchers noted that post-halving estimates need to be around $12,500 per BTC or more.

What do you think about the recent hashrate drop and the upcoming halvings? Do you think that the cryptoconomy needs to increase in value by the time the halvings approach? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article. Price articles and market updates are intended for informational purposes only and should not be considered as trading advice. Neither Bitcoin.com nor the author is responsible for any losses or gains, as the ultimate decision to conduct a trade is made by the reader. Cryptocurrency prices referenced in this article were recorded on Monday, March 16, 2020.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Fork.lol, bitcoinblockhalf.com, bitcoincashblockhalf.com, blockchain.com, asicminervalue.com, Fair Use, Wiki Commons, and Pixabay.

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