Bitcoin has reached a new milestone. Bitcoin mining difficulty, a measure of the complexity of the mathematical problem associated with each block, surpassed 80 trillion on Friday.
The network's hash rate, which measures the total computing power allocated by miners, increased to 562.81 EH/s. At the same time, mining difficulty hit an all-time high, reaching 81.73 trillion, according to blockchain researcher BTC.com.
Since January 2023, Bitcoin mining difficulty has been on a consistent upward trend. This figure is expected to reach 100 trillion in the coming months, reflecting the growing interest and investment in Bitcoin mining.
Bitcoin's proof-of-work consensus mechanism determines mining difficulty, which measures the complexity of adding a new block to the blockchain. The higher the difficulty, the more computing power and energy it takes for the miner to find the correct hash for the new block. Over the past 12 months, the difficulty level of the Bitcoin network has more than doubled.
In late April, Bitcoin's mining rewards will be halved in an event known as the halving. This discount, which occurs approximately every four years, was included in the structure of the token by Bitcoin programmers in order to combat inflation. Bitcoin's mining reward was last halved in May 2020.
After the next halving, Bitcoin's rewards will drop from 6.25 BTC to 3,125 BTC. This halving could lead to a drop in hash rate as inefficient miners struggle to get a share of mining rewards and exit mining. A lower hash rate is expected to result in a reduced difficulty of Bitcoin mining as the network attempts to maintain consistent block production every 10 minutes.
*This is not investment advice.