Fun

4 Consecutive Difficulty Drops Make Bitcoin Block Rewards 49% Easier to Find

News Feed - 2021-07-17 07:07:42

4 Consecutive Difficulty Drops Make Bitcoin Block Rewards 49% Easier to Find


Following the largest mining difficulty drop in Bitcoin’s history, this weekend will once again see another slide, but less than 6% of the difficulty will be shaved. Statistics show Bitcoin’s hashrate has been able to climb higher since the difficulty drop two weeks ago, and climbed above 100 exahash per second (EH/s) this week. This weekend’s upcoming bitcoin mining difficulty drop will be the only time in history the difficulty slipped four times in a row. 2021’s Consecutive Difficulty Drops Come Awfully Close to 2011’s Records


After China cracked down on bitcoin miners at the end of June, a large quantity of hashpower had temporarily halted. Statistics indicate that the hashrate was around 66 EH/s on June 28 and since then it has increased to above the 100 EH/s zone.


There’s currently 18 known mining pools dedicating hashrate to the BTC chain, and 4.71 % of the global hashrate (24-hour stats) or 4.79 EH/s belongs to unknown miners. This weekend, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty will drop for the fourth time in a row. Bitcoin’s mining difficulty has never dropped four times in a row, but did drop three times consecutively in 2018.


Two weeks ago the Bitcoin network saw the largest difficulty drop ever and another difficulty drop is expected this weekend. Using today’s average hashrate, statistics show the drop will be less than 6% bringing the current difficulty of 14.36 trillion down to 13.5 trillion.


This means after the dip, the mining difficulty will have dropped four times in a row. The last time the BTC mining difficulty dropped more than four times in a row was in 2011. From August to November 2011, the mining difficulty dropped eight times in a row. 2018 Saw Three Difficulty Drops in a Row, Five Mining Pools Currently Command 59% of Bitcoin’s Hashrate


The only other time BTC’s mining difficulty came close to the four times in a row record was in 2018 for three consecutive difficulty drops between November and December. August to the end of November 2011 saw eight consecutive difficulty drops in a row.


The most recent number of difficulty drops saw 49.21% shaved off the difficulty, which is slightly less than the 51.54% shed in 2011. Back then, the difficulty tapped a high of 1.89 million in August and by November it was 1.09 million at block height 155,232.


At the time of writing, the top mining pools on Friday afternoon include Viabtc, Antpool, Poolin, F2pool, and Btc.com. These pools are followed by Binance, Foundry and Slushpool, but the top five operations command 59.4% of the global hashrate.


Binance, Foundry and Slushpool capture 21.9% of BTC’s hashpower on Friday afternoon. That leaves ten known pools and 4.79 EH/s of unknown hashpower, commanding 18.7% of the global hashrate.


What do you think about the four difficulty drops in 2021 compared to the eight drops in 2011? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. University of Cambridge Bitcoin Mining Map Shows China"s Hashrate Dropped to 46% MINING | 1 day ago Compass Mining Partners With Oklo to Power Bitcoin Mining Operations With Advanced Fission MINING | 1 day ago Tags in this story 16% drop, 2011, 2020, 27% drop, 4 times, 8 times, Block time, BTC difficulty, BTC.com, chinese miners, difficulty, Exahash, Hahspower, Hashpower, Hashrate, largest drop, Largest Drop in History, Mempool, Mining Operations, Mining Pools, network difficulty, Overall Hashrate, SHA256 Hashrate


Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article. Read disclaimerShow comments

News Feed

Why Isn’t XRP Price Moving? Crypto Pundit Claims The Answer
Este artículo también está disponible en español. XRP has been one of the underperformers in the current crypto market cycle, remaining approximately 86% below its all-ti
Ana Paula Pereira6 hours agoWhat’s next for Binance’s Changpeng “CZ” ZhaoAccording to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, CZ could receive a 12-18 month sentence, but the Department of Justice is willing to fight for
Helen Partz13 hours agoPayPal faces SEC action related to PYUSD stablecoin: OfficialPayPal was the first large fintech firm to adopt digital currencies for payments and transfers after launching its stablecoin in August.
Price analysis 6/28: BTC, ETH, BNB, SOL, XRP, DOGE, TON, ADA, AVAX, SHIB
Rakesh Upadhyay4 hours agoPrice analysis 6/28: BTC, ETH, BNB, SOL, XRP, DOGE, TON, ADA, AVAX, SHIBAltcoins see another week of rocky trading, while traders are viewing Bitcoin price dips as a buying opportunity, as seen
Rakesh Upadhyay6 hours agoPrice analysis 11/13: SPX, DXY, BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, SOL, ADA, DOGE, LINKBitcoin opened the week with a shallow correction, but altcoin traders seem unaffected by the slight BTC price pullback.27
US Treasury Sanctions First Crypto Mixer
US Treasury Sanctions First Crypto Mixer The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has issued its first-ever sanctions on a crypto mixer.
Pundit Explains Why XRP Stands To Gain Big From Ripple’s RLUSD
Reason to trust Strict editorial policy that focuses on accuracy, relevance, and impartiality Created by industry experts and meticulously reviewed The highest standards in reporting and pu
OCC acting head compares crypto-asset intermediaries to corrupt bank
Derek Andersen2 hours agoOCC acting head compares crypto-asset intermediaries to corrupt bankMichael Hsu urged international cooperation and collaboration in a bid to prevent crypto firms from leveraging competition amon
Tom Blackstone2 hours agoCurve emergency DAO terminates rewards for hack-related poolsThe Curve emergency DAO removed CRV rewards for alETH, msETH, pETH, crvCRVETH, Arbitrum Tricrypto and multiBTC pools.645 Total views6
How DePIN is shaping the future of crypto — Polygon Labs exec
Vince Quill3 hours agoHow DePIN is shaping the future of crypto — Polygon Labs execReal-world tokenized assets returned an average of roughly 213% this year, making the sector one of the highest-performing in the indu
Indiana’s Star Bank Launches Bitcoin Trading Services
Indiana"s Star Bank Launches Bitcoin Trading Services Star Financial Bank (Star Bank) says it has become the first bank in the U.S. state of Indiana to offer bitcoin services to cu
dYdX community approves 20M token stake as network activity soars
Ana Paula Pereira6 hours agodYdX community approves 20M token stake as network activity soarsThe dYdX community approved staking 20 million DYDX tokens as a security measure as the protocol experiences a spike in trading