Despite facing a formidable difficulty level of 61.03 trillion, bitcoin miners are gearing up for their fourth consecutive difficulty rise set to unfold on October 30, 2023. Surprisingly, the previous three surges in difficulty failed to thwart Bitcoin’s hashrate, which soared to an all-time peak on October 12, 2023. What’s even more interesting is that the recent epochs for block times have consistently outpaced the traditional ten-minute average.
Bitcoin’s Hashrate Skyrockets to Historic High Despite Rising Difficulty, 4th Increase Expected in 2 Days
The surge in bitcoin’s (BTC) value has translated into burgeoning profits for miners, with the world’s largest mining pools continuing to commit substantial hashpower to the network. On October 12, based on a simple moving seven-day average, Bitcoin’s hashrate reached an unprecedented 456 exahash per second (EH/s), marking an epoch-making milestone.
As of now, the hashrate has stabilized around 443 EH/s, according to the seven-day average. Forecasts currently indicate an anticipated increase in difficulty of 2.21% to 2.5% by October 30. This follows the recent 6.47% uptick observed at block height 812,448 on October 16, as well as the two prior increments.
Notably, the current block intervals are consistently shorter than the typical ten-minute average, clocking in between eight minutes and 30 seconds and nine minutes and 48 seconds, indicating that 2,016 blocks will likely be mined faster than the two-week average.
Approximately 42 mining pools are channeling their SHA256 hashrate towards the Bitcoin blockchain, propelling Namecoin’s hashrate beyond the 300 EH/s threshold. Namecoin, which shares its mining infrastructure with BTC via merge-mining, reached a record-breaking 396 EH/s at block height 687,123.
Among these 42 pools, Antpool has led the pack over the past three days, accounting for a significant 29.56% of the total hashrate, equivalent to 132 EH/s. Following closely behind, Foundry USA commands a substantial 27.56% share, amounting to 123 EH/s, while Viabtc holds a respectable 11.56% of the hashrate, tallying up to 51.86 EH/s.
Completing the roster of top mining pools after Antpool, Foundry, and Viabtc, are F2pool and Binance pool. As of October 28, 2023, more than 25,000 blocks remain to be mined before the next reward halving. While the anticipated halving event is slated for April 21, 2024, the possibility of an earlier occurrence in March 2024 or earlier looms if the trend of expedited block times persists.
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