Bitcoin mining difficulty registered a drop of 5.7% this Thursday (09), marking the biggest negative adjustment in almost 18 months.
The adjustment occurred during the mining of block 842,688, reducing the difficulty to 83.1 trillion, according to data from Bitbo.
This is the biggest negative adjustment since the December 2022 bear market when difficulty decreased by 7% and Bitcoin traded for around $17,000.
Bitcoin mining difficulty is a relative measure of how difficult it is to mine a new block compared to the easiest possible. This measure automatically adjusts every 2016 blocks, that is, approximately two weeks.
Bitcoin mining difficulty collapses
The objective of the difficulty adjustment is to ensure that, on average, a new block is mined every 10 minutes, regardless of the number of active miners.
When the number of miners increases, Bitcoin mining difficulty also increases. On the other hand, if there is a decrease in the number of miners competing to find new blocks, the protocol reduces mining difficulty. In practice, this makes it easier for the remaining miners to discover blocks.
The negative adjustment follows a 10% drop in the network’s hash rate since the last difficulty adjustment on April 24, from a seven-day moving average of 639.58 EH/s to 578.74 EH/s. Before the adjustment, average block times were 10 minutes and 36 seconds.
The drop in hash rate dropped the Bitcoin hash price to an all-time low of less than $50 per PH/s per day on April 29, as the price of Bitcoin also fell below $63,000.
Mining difficulty adjustment
Today’s negative adjustment in Bitcoin mining difficulty is the first since the 1% drop in late March and follows two positive adjustments around the halving.
Bitcoin’s fourth halving event took place on April 20, with the final pre-halving and first post-halving difficulty adjustment rising 4% and 2%, respectively, to a record 88.1 trillion, marking a peak of hash rate of 650.29 EH/s in April. 19. The network’s hash rate has fallen by around 11% since the halving.
Today’s negative difficulty adjustment may help alleviate some miners’ post-halving difficulties. After all, it can make the Bitcoin mining process a little easier.
This negative adjustment is the first since the 1% drop at the end of March and follows two positive adjustments around the halving.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is priced at $61,000, with a daily drop of almost 2%, according to CoinGecko.
Source: https://www.criptofacil.com/dificuldade-de-mineracao-de-bitcoin-tem-maior-queda-desde-quando-btc-custava-us-17-000/
