As bitcoin’s price nears its all-time high, the network’s hashrate is hitting impressive heights once again this year.
Bitcoin’s Hashrate Hits All-Time High at 740 EH/s—What It Means for Miners
This article was published more than a year ago. Some information may no longer be current.
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Bitcoin’s Computational Power Climbs to New Highs—Will the Trend Continue?
Following the trajectory of BTC’s rising value against a variety of fiat currencies, including the U.S. dollar, bitcoin’s network hashrate is soaring. At 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, Oct. 30, BTC is holding steady just below the $72,000 mark after hitting $73,600 on Tuesday afternoon.
Data from the mining firm Luxor, highlighted on hashrateindex.com, reveals that bitcoin miners are enjoying better revenue as the price climbs. For instance, on Wednesday, the estimated worth of 1 petahash per second (PH/s) of SHA256 hashpower sits around $48.05.
One PH/s equals 1,000 terahash per second (TH/s) or 0.001 exahash per second (EH/s). This figure is up over 7% from Oct. 27, when the hashprice for 1 PH/s hovered around $44.93. Alongside these revenue gains, bitcoin miners have driven the hashrate to a new peak.
Using the broader seven-day simple moving average (SMA), hashrateindex.com shows the hashrate surpassing its previous record of 736 EH/s, set on Oct. 25. As of now, Luxor’s metrics indicate a high of 742.42 EH/s.
If the hashrate keeps this pace, the network may soon hit 800 EH/s. With all this increased hashpower, block times are ticking in faster than the typical ten-minute average, now averaging about 9 minutes and 15 seconds.
Consequently, bitcoin miners and the network appear headed for a difficulty adjustment. Current estimates point to a likely 7.94% difficulty increase, a shift that may ease the rapid mining pace going forward.
