The Bitcoin network is preparing for a significant difficulty adjustment on February 15, 2024. This adjustment is expected to bring about a substantial increase in the network’s complexity for miners.
In fact, it is projected to be the most significant difficulty surge witnessed in 2024 thus far, with estimates ranging from 8.45% to 9.2%.
Bitcoin’s difficulty is adjusted approximately every 2,016 blocks to maintain an average block production time of around ten minutes per block.
If these blocks are mined in less than two weeks, an increase in difficulty typically follows. Conversely, if mining the epoch takes longer than two weeks, a decrease in difficulty is expected.
Currently, block intervals are averaging between eight minutes and 45 seconds to nine minutes and seven seconds for each block discovered.
The seven-day simple moving average (SMA) for Bitcoin’s hashrate is maintaining a pace of 597 exahash per second (EH/s).
Miners have been increasing the network’s computational strength and difficulty every few weeks in preparation for the anticipated fourth reward halving.
The rising difficulty and hashrate reflect the increasing competition among miners to validate transactions and secure the network.
As more miners participate, the computational power required to mine new blocks also increases, resulting in higher difficulty levels.
The upcoming difficulty adjustment is closely watched by the cryptocurrency community as it can impact mining profitability and network security.
A significant increase in difficulty may lead to higher mining costs for participants, potentially affecting the decentralization of the network if smaller miners are priced out of the market.
Article updated 7 days ago. Content is written and modified by multiple authors.
