From theblock by James Hunt
Bitcoin BTC +1.11%mining difficulty rose 6.2% on Tuesday to breach the 100 trillion level for the first time following a record average hash rate for the network.
The difficulty adjustment came at block height 868,896, reaching a record of 101.7 trillion, according to blockchain explorer Mempool — exceeding the prior high of 95.7 trillion set just two weeks ago.
Bitcoin mining difficulty is not expressed in specific units. It is a relative measure of how hard it is to mine a new block compared to the easiest it could ever be. The difficulty automatically adjusts every 2016 blocks — roughly two weeks — to ensure that, on average, a new block is found every 10 minutes, regardless of how many miners are actively mining.
Ahead of Tuesday’s adjustment, Bitcoin’s blocks were being mined at the faster-than-average rate of one block every nine minutes and 27 seconds, according to Clark Moody’s dashboard.
The higher the difficulty, the more computational power and energy a miner needs to find the right hash for the next block. When there’s an increase in the number of miners, the difficulty of mining bitcoin rises. Conversely, if there is a decrease in the number of miners competing to find new blocks, the protocol lowers the mining difficulty, making it easier for the remaining miners to discover blocks.
Bitcoin mining difficulty. Image: Mempool.
Last week, Bitcoin's hash rate, which measures the total computational power dedicated to the network by miners, reached a new seven-day moving average all-time high of 755.5 EH/s — exceeding the 750 EH/s level for the first time, according to The Block’s data dashboard.
Following Bitcoin’s fourth halving event on April 20, which saw block subsidy rewards halve from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, bitcoin miners saw a substantial decline in revenue. Earnings fell from a seven-day moving average peak of $72.4 million on the day of the event to the $25 to $35 million range since — squeezing out less efficient miners from the market.