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- Bitcoin mining difficulty reached a record high of 109.78 trillion and is expected to decrease by 8% in mid-January.
- Miners earned $1.33 billion in December, surpassing November’s revenue despite a decline in hashprice.
The mining difficulty of Bitcoin has risen to 109.78 trillion, a new record, after rising by 1.16% in the last adjustment that occurred on Sunday, as shown by CoinWarz data. The metric, which reflects the difficulty in solving cryptographic problems for a mining process, has risen by 24% in the last 90 days and 52% in the last 3 months of the year.
Such steady growth proves the network’s stability and the increasing rivalry among miners. They occur approximately once every two weeks to provide stable block production, a feature implemented into the Bitcoin system by its anonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.
The next mining difficulty adjustment is due on January 14. Initial estimates indicate that the figure might fall slightly below 8% to around 100.7 trillion. This decline could help to alleviate some of the pressure on miners as they try to operate in an environment with volatile markets.
However, the hashrate of Bitcoin, which is the overall computing power of the network, has recently touched the 800 EH/s mark for the first time. This achievement captured by Blockchain.com on the 15th of December shows that the network has strong fundamentals.
The price of Bitcoin has fluctuated greatly and even hit $108,135 earlier this month before falling to $93,638 as of this writing on CoinGecko. According to some analysts, price trends may follow the hashrate in the long term based on the analyzed data.
Revenue Climbs Despite Decline in Hashprice
Bitcoin miners have already earned more than they did in November, earning $1.33 billion in December with only one day left in the month. November’s revenue stood at $1.21 billion, with on-chain fees accounting for $38.73 million, while December has already seen $37.69 million in fees. As of the time of writing, there are only 48 hours left in the year, and miners are on course to exceed the fees collected in November.
While the hash price per petahash per second fell from $61.78 to $55.57 in the past month, the higher Bitcoin prices and record hashrate of 805 EH/s have prevented the degradation. The enhancement of mining efficiency has led to higher revenue.
A planned upgrade of mining difficulty that took place on the 29th of December is expected to cause a small rise in the mining difficulty, and this is due to the average block intervals of 9 minutes and 53 seconds. The current hashing rate of the network is 791.45 EH/s with 65 mining farms, each having a minimum mining power of 286.33 KH/s.
Russia Imposes Crypto Mining Ban
In related news, the Russian government recently declared that cryptocurrency mining will be prohibited in ten regions for six years because of high energy usage. The ban will take effect on January 1, 2024 and will last until March 15, 2031, and extend to mining pools in the affected regions.
The affected areas are Dagestan, North Ossetia, and Chechnya, and the list will be amended from time to time according to energy requirements. Other measures include prohibition in other zones for periods of peak load, which is also a part of the policy.
Russia legalized crypto mining in July, and the law was passed in August. However, while the country has outlawed the use of cryptocurrencies in everyday transactions, it allows cross-border payments to avoid sanctions set after invading Ukraine.
