Bitcoin (BTC) Sees New Hashrate Record While Price Remains Indecisive

[Pegasus]

Bitcoin (BTC) saw its network hashrate jump to an absolute record of above 60 EH/s, according to Bitinfocharts. Data on the hashrate differ somewhat, but the latest spike in mining pushed it to a record.

The reason was the November 1 difficulty re-adjustment, where the difficulty of finding a block rose by just 0.2%. Miners will usually slow down, waiting for relatively low difficulty levels, then increase their hashrate. A lower difficulty makes it more probable to discover a block, hence the race to put in as much hashing power as possible.

The Bitcoin network hashrate has been fluctuating but has remained relatively close to the 50-60 EH/s range. In 2018, new shipments of rigs and more mining farms have happened. The levels of mining fluctuate by as much as 20%, indicating that some mining operations may be switched off temporarily.

More than 50% of blocks found went to the four largest mining pools - BTC.com, BTC.top, AntPool, and ViaBTC. This constant domination pattern has made critics feel Bitcoin is too dependent on China-based mining operations and potentially influenced by Bitmain.

The spike in mining comes at a time when the BTC price is looking for some trigger to decide on a direction. In the past months, Bitcoin mining has not been affected by the falling prices and has seen growth. But now, there are predictions of BTC revisiting $3,000 levels in a “capitulation event,” which is the pessimistic scenario. It remains unknown if the record hashrate number would be interpreted as a positive indicator for the market. The coin was trading at $6,385.77 at 5:45 UTC on Friday.

Bitcoin mining is considered potentially harmful to the environment as it uses far more electricity compared to other transaction methods. However, multiple mining operations make use of hydroelectric power, and mining rigs are becoming more efficient, providing a high hashrate on lower electricity consumption.

Another possible reason for the hashrate growth is the launch of the overt ASICBoost option by Bitmain, as well as an alternative ASICBoost solution from the Braiins team. ASICBoost is an approach used to further optimize the hashrate of mining rigs.

Mining is no indicator of the actual usage of Bitcoin. At the moment, the network usually handles between 500,000 and 600,000 transactions in 24 hours, with just around 1,000 pending in the mempool. The days of network overload and rising fees have been left behind, and BTC is now mostly moved between exchanges, more rarely as a means of payment.

Neither the author nor the publication assumes any responsibility or liability for any investments, profits, or losses made as a result of this information. Cryptocurrency trading and investing are risky propositions, and market participants are advised to always conduct thorough research.

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