Bitcoin’s Mining Difficulty Increases by 3.44%, Hitting a New Record High

• by Artem
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• October 24, 2022
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• Bitcoin News

The mining difficulty for Bitcoin (BTC) increased by 3.44% over the weekend compared to the level miners faced during the previous two weeks or the previous 2,016 blocks. Following the 3.44% shift on Sunday evening (ET), the network’s difficulty has increased to an all-time high of 36.84 trillion.

The boost on Sunday comes after a 13.55% increase in Bitcoin’s difficulty that was noted at a block height of 758,016 on October 10, 2022. The biggest Bitcoin difficulty jump in 2022 occurred at the same time as the overall hashrate of BTC hit an ATH on October 11, 2022, at block height 758,138; it was a 13.55% increase.

The network’s hashrate peaked on October 11 at 325.11 exahashes per second (EH/s), or 325.11 quintillion one hundred ten quadrillion hashes per second. On October 21, the network’s hashrate was unaffected by the lifetime high of the difficulty, and the reduced BTC prices since Bitcoin’s computing strength is still unmatched. BTC’s hashrate is currently cruising along at 260 to 275 EH/s. Due to the 2,016 blocks being mined more quickly than the two-week average, the difficulty rose on Sunday.

On Sunday, October 23, 2022, at 5 p.m. (ET), BTC’s block time average was around 8:79 minutes. The October 21 mining update shows the network’s hashrate strength, and block intervals ranged from 8:30 to 9:35 minutes. Block intervals are attempted to be maintained at an average pace of ten minutes for each block by Satoshi’s difficulty retargets. The difficulty will increase if the gap of 2,016 blocks between difficulty retargets is smaller than the two-week average, and it will drop if it takes too long (more than two weeks) to mine those 2,016 blocks.

Foundry USA, Antpool, and F2pool, the top three bitcoin mining pools, currently control 60.36 percent of the world’s hashrate on Sunday. 444 BTC blocks were created during the previous three days, and Foundry found 113 of those blocks. Of the 444 blocks discovered, Antpool found 90 and F2pool 65. A total of 12 known mining pools are devoting SHA256 hashrate to the BTC chain, while stealth miners account for 4.05% of the total hashrate.

The current USD value of a block subsidy is $122,250, and the next anticipated mining difficulty retarget scheduled to occur on or around November 6, 2022. The next block subsidy halving is expected to take place between February 24, 2024, and April 20, 2024, leaving about 79,900 blocks available.