Bitcoin mining difficulty adjustment
Bitcoin difficulty climbs 1.74% in the first upward adjustment since June
Analyzing Bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment and mining profitability
The latest difficulty adjustment, effective at block height 747,936, increased mining difficulty by 1.74%. In this overview, we’ll analyze the effects on mining and profitability.
Bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment in numbers
The latest difficulty adjustment occurred at block height 747,936, mined on August 4. Total hashrate at the time of the adjustment averaged 201.43 EH/s.
The network’s total computing power was 1.65% lower than the 198.15 EH/s from two weeks before. As a result, difficulty jumped 1.74% from 27.69T to 28.17T.
This is the first upward adjustment since June, ending a streak of 3 consecutive decreases in difficulty. It also marks hashrate’s return above the 200 EH/s line, which it had lost after the last change.
The difficulty adjustment and Bitcoin mining profitability
The increase in hashrate over the last two weeks came as a result of BTC’s recovery over the $22K line.
Indeed, the increase in bitcoin’s price enabled miners to fire up their computers once again after having to turn them off due to low profitability.
Fortunately for miners, this mild difficulty increase wasn’t very impactful in terms of profitability. Hashprice remains hovering between $0.10 and $0.11, with price action setting the course.
As you can see in the chart below, with difficulty compressing its swings, the variations between price and profitability have dropped to a minimum.
As a result, and assuming we won’t see any significant changes in hashrate, we can expect miner revenue to follow BTC price closely in the coming weeks.
Implications of the latest difficulty adjustment
The increase in difficulty can be interpreted in different ways.
First of all, it shows that many miners who have capitulated in the last few weeks are still waiting on the sidelines to plug their ASICs right back in as soon as it’s profitable.
Another conclusion we can draw from this event is that we have found a certain balance between price and hashrate. That said, it’s likely that the latter will follow the former for the short-term future.
TL;DR:
- Difficulty adjustment block height: 747,936
- Date of the adjustment: 08/04/2022
- Average hashrate at the time of the adjustment: 201.43 EH/s
- Previous difficulty: 27.69T
- Current difficulty: 28.17T
- Difficulty change: +1.74%
- Miner revenue per TH/s (hashprice) after adjustment: $0.103
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