Bitcoin mining difficulty breaks above 80 trillion for first time

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Bitcoin mining difficulty breaks above 80 trillion for first time
by MK Manoylov
CRYPTO ECOSYSTEMS • FEBRUARY 16, 2024, 11:53AM EST
Published 1 MINUTE EARLIER on


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Bitcoin mining difficulty reached 81.73 trillion on Feb. 16.
That figure could reach 100 trillion before the next bitcoin halving in late April.


The Bitcoin BTC -0.51%
mining difficulty, the measure of how hard it is to solve the mathematical problem associated with a block, passed 80 trillion on Friday.

The hash rate for the network, which meters the total computational power dedicated by miners, rose to 562.81 EH/s with the mining difficulty reaching 81.73 trillion — a new all-time high, according to the blockchain explorer BTC.com. With its consistent increase since January 2023, bitcoin mining difficulty is on a course to reach 100 trillion in the coming months.


Bitcoin mining difficulty as of Feb. 16. Image: BTC.com

With Bitcoin's proof-of-work consensus mechanism, mining difficulty gauges the complexity of adding a new block to the blockchain. The higher the difficulty, the more computational power and energy a miner needs to find the right hash for the new block. For the Bitcoin network, the difficulty level has more than doubled in the past 12 months.

Bitcoin's price hit $51,783.74 at 10:45 a.m. ET on Feb. 16. The last time bitcoin's price was that high was in November 2021, according to The Block's Price Page.

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Bitcoin halving
Bitcoin's mining rewards will be cut in half in late April in what's known as the 'Bitcoin Halving.' Bitcoin's programmers baked the reduction into the token's structure roughly every four years to fight inflation. The last time bitcoin's mining reward halved was in May 2020.

Come the next halving, bitcoin's rewards will fall to 3.125 BTC from 6.25 BTC. The halving may cause a reduction in hash rate as inefficient miners struggle to break even from their mining rewards and exit. A lower hash rate is expected to lead to a decreased bitcoin mining difficulty as the network attempts to maintain consistent block production every 10 minutes.


Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

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ABOUT AUTHOR
MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.
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To contact the editor of this story:
Lawrence Lewitinn at
llewitinn@theblock.co
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