Bitcoin mining difficulty hits new high in latest adjustment

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Bitcoin mining difficulty reached yet another all-time high on Wednesday, logging a 5.56% increase from the last adjustment two weeks ago.

See related article: Almost 60% of Bitcoin mining now on sustainable energy: BMC

Fast facts

  • The mining difficulty level is now at 29.79 trillion at block height 733,824, after it saw a drop of 1.26% on April 14, following a previous all-time high that was recorded on March 31 at 28.59 trillion, according to data from BTC.com.

  • Bitcoin mining difficulty is a measure of how hard a miner would have to work to verify transactions on a block in the blockchain, or “dig out” Bitcoins. The difficulty level undergoes an adjustment every 2,016 blocks, which usually takes about two weeks.

  • Such mining difficulty adjustments are highly correlated to changes in the mining hashrate, which refers to the level of computing power used per second when mining. When the hashrate increases, the mining difficulty typically follows.

  • The Bitcoin hashrate rose to 220.49 exahashes per second on Wednesday on a seven-day average, up 9% from the reading on April 14, Blockchain.com data show.

  • A recent survey from the Bitcoin Mining Council showed the industry had a sustainable electricity mix of 58.4% during the January to March period this year, up from 36.8% a year earlier.

See related article: Bitcoin mining difficulty drops amid market turmoil