Bitcoin Difficulty Continues to Rise
Bitcoin’s difficulty has seen its fourth consecutive increase, rising by 2.35% on October 29, 2023. This brings the difficulty level to a record high of 62.46 trillion. The previous rise occurred on October 16 with a 6.47% increase.
Mining Challenges
The increased difficulty makes mining bitcoin block rewards more challenging than ever before. However, miners have shown resilience and stability, maintaining a total hashrate of just over 450 exahash per second (EH/s).
Block Times and Mining Pools
Despite the increased difficulty, block times have remained below the ten-minute average. Currently, data shows block speeds ranging from nine minutes and 17 seconds to slightly above the nine-minute mark per block.
A total of 42 mining pools are contributing at least 3 gigahash per second (GH/s) to the Bitcoin blockchain. Additionally, nearly 17 pools have hashpower of over 1 EH/s dedicated to mining bitcoin.
Changes in Dominant Mining Pools
In terms of dominant mining pools, Foundry has recently taken the lead with 27.02% of the total hashrate, surpassing Antpool’s previous position. Together, these two pools govern over half of the network’s entire hashrate.
Over the past week, Foundry and Antpool have been engaged in a close race for hashrate dominance. As of October 30, Foundry is slightly ahead with 120 EH/s compared to Antpool’s 118 EH/s.
Hot Take: Bitcoin Miners Remain Resilient Despite Increasing Difficulty
The recent consecutive rises in Bitcoin’s difficulty have not deterred miners, who continue to show resilience and stability. With the upcoming difficulty epoch on November 12, 2023, it will be interesting to see how miners adapt to the increasing complexity of mining bitcoin block rewards.
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