Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 10% at the end of December
On December 31, the Bitcoin network registered an increase in the hashrate or hash rate to 41.28 EH per second, a figure that has generated an adjustment in the mining difficulty that closed for said date at 5.62T, of according to BitcoinWisdom. This represents an increase of 10% compared to the last value registered by BitcoinWisdom on December 18 last.
Against all bearish market forecasts and Bitcoin predictions, after having reached the lowest point of its quotation in 2018, the blockchain data reflects that there has been a flowering in the mining activity in recent days, with an increase in hashrate that is due to the integration of new mining equipment to the network.
According to Bitcoinwinsdom charts, Bitcoin registered in November and December a 20% reduction in the difficulty of its mining, a decrease caused by the withdrawal of mining machines due to the fall in the profitability of this business due to lower prices in the cryptocurrency market. However, at present this percentage could be starting to recover with the introduction of new mining machines to the business.
The difficulty of mining is proportionally related to the hashrate, that is, with the processing power of the blockchain and the number of mining machines that are active confirming transactions. Due to this, in each block, Bitcoin has a mechanism that readjusts the difficulty of the network in proportion to the number of miners who are active, guaranteeing stability and good incentives in the network.
In 2018 the Bitcoin hashrate grew steadily with the rise of mining farms. However, by the beginning of October, a hashrate decrease of 35.8 EH / s began to decrease and continued to decrease. It was until last December 18 that an increase in the hash rate began to be reported, reaching 40 EH per second, and counting, in the month of January, according to Bitcoinwinsdom figures.
Alistair Milne, investor and cryptocurrency enthusiast, tweeted about this increase in the difficulty of mining, considering that it is proof that Bitcoin is not "in a spiral of death" as many claim.