Bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, experienced a significant mining difficulty adjustment at block height 790,272. The mining difficulty, which measures the level of complexity miners face when attempting to validate transactions and add them to the blockchain, increased by 3.22%. This adjustment pushed the difficulty to a record high of 49.55 T.
The surge in mining difficulty can be attributed to the recent surge in popularity of Ordinals BRC20, a decentralized finance (DeFi) token built on the Bitcoin network. The growing interest in Ordinals BRC20 has prompted more miners to power up their mining machines and increase their hashrate, resulting in the higher mining difficulty.
At present, the average hashrate stands at an impressive 354.55 EH/s. Hashrate refers to the computational power dedicated to mining Bitcoin. The higher the hashrate, the more secure the network becomes, as it becomes increasingly difficult for malicious actors to overpower the network’s computational capacity.
This latest mining difficulty adjustment is indicative of the ongoing growth and maturation of the Bitcoin network. As more individuals and institutions enter the cryptocurrency space, the demand for mining operations has increased. Miners play a crucial role in maintaining the security and integrity of the Bitcoin blockchain by validating transactions and securing the network.
