Bitcoin Difficulty Estimated to Drop After 5 Back-to-Back Increases
Bitcoin’s recent network activity has caused a buzz in the cryptocurrency world. The imminent change in the network’s mining difficulty is heading towards a possible decline, marking the first decrease since February 12, 2023. Also, with the current block times in place, the mining participants of the network may finally see a drop.
The network has witnessed a significant upswing in difficulty of around 22.62% since block height 778,176, before a possible decrease. Presently, the decline in Bitcoin’s difficulty level could potentially take place around May 4, 2023, with the hashrate of the network currently standing at 332 exahash per second (EH/s) after experiencing a dip to 290 EH/s on Tuesday.
The block intervals or the time between each block discovered, indicate that blocks are being found over the ten-minute average after the recent difficulty in mining. The estimations for the next difficulty drop hover around -1% to -4%. However, with over a week or more than a thousand blocks yet to go before the next difficulty adjustment, the exact figures remain uncertain.
Subsequently, Bitcoin's value spiked by 6% on April 26, surging above the $29k range. This increase comes as a relief to the miners who were bracing themselves through five back-to-back difficulty increases. Moreover, the price of Bitcoin has been on an upward trajectory, providing miners with a higher daily revenue until the next retarget.
Over the past three days, Foundry USA has contributed a substantial hashpower of 110.30 EH/s, accounting for 32.68% of the total hashrate, followed by Antpool, producing 79.62 EH/s or 23.59% of the total hashrate, securing its position as the second-largest mining pool. Foundry and Antpool’s hashrates are followed by F2pool, Viabtc and Binance Pool.
In conclusion, the possible decrease in Bitcoin’s mining difficulty is a positive development for miners, providing them with relief from five back-to-back difficulty increases. The rise in Bitcoin’s value is also a positive sign for miners, as it provides them with higher daily revenue until the next retarget. The cryptocurrency world anticipates further developments in Bitcoin’s network activity.
