Despite the current value of bitcoin (BTC), which is still less than half of its peak value in 2021, falling electricity costs are driving miners to resume or even expand operations. Wednesday reached the mining difficulty a record high.
Increase Bitcoin mining difficulty due to 3 factors
The mining difficulty is an indicator of the computing power required to earn bitcoin. A high value is generally a good sign of a healthy network. Three factors seem to contribute to the increasing mining difficulty.
Where electricity costs were skyrocketing a year ago, they have now fallen again. In addition the increase is partly due to increasingly efficient computers entering the market and the bitcoin price is a lot more attractive than six months ago.
Mining difficulty passes 50 trillion
According to dates from BTC.com you can see that the mining difficulty fell sharply during the peak of the market in 2021. In the following two years we see a fairly constant growth, until the last months in which it increased even more. The value rose by 3.4% in recent weeks, after an earlier increase of 3.22%.
Apart from two slight drops, the difficulty level continues to rise, indicating strong and healthy growth in the mining sector. The mining difficulty stands at 51.23 trillion at the time of writing. It is the first time in the network’s history that a value of 50 trillion has been exceeded.
Six months ago, several leading mining companies had to close or sell large parts of their contents. Was one of those companies Core Scientific Inc. They were forced to sell more than 27,000 miners as collateral for a loan.
Bitcoin mining companies are optimizing their operations with new equipment and improved cooling systems in anticipation of the halving in April 2024. This coding change will halve Bitcoin rewards, their main source of income.