On April 6, 2023, Bitcoin’s network difficulty sky-rocketed 2.23% to a new record level at block height 784,224. This marks the fourth consecutive increase in difficulty in the Bitcoin network since February 24, and the protocol’s current difficulty has almost reached the 50 trillion range, sitting at 47.89 trillion.
Bitcoin Difficulty Jumps 2.23% Higher
The current difficulty of around 47.89 trillion on the Bitcoin network is the highest it has ever been, making it increasingly difficult for miners to find blocks. The Bitcoin Protocol’s current difficulty level requires miners to complete around 47.89 trillion computations using a trial-and-error approach in order to come up with a cryptographic value that meets the criteria of each block added to the blockchain.
The Thursday increase was the fourth in 41 days, or since block height 778.176. The difficulty increase on Thursday was 2.23% more than the previous two week’s, and the difficulty will remain at 47.89 billion until April 20. Despite the difficulty, the hashrate continues to rise at 340.61 exahash per second (EH/s), while last month it peaked at 400 EH/s.
According to coinwarz.com, the network reached its all-time high of 414.33 EH/s on March 25, 2023 at block height 782,408. The current hashrate is 340 EH/s. Block intervals have stayed below the ten minute mark, ranging from 8 minutes, 29 seconds to 9 hours, 8 seconds. As of Thursday evening at 9:30pm Eastern Time.
In the last three days, 463 blocks have been discovered. Foundry USA discovered 159 blocks using about 34.34% global network hashpower, or 117.66 EH/s. Antpool captured 95 blocks over the same period, with 70.30 EH/s, or 20.52% of the network’s hashpower. The Average hashrate for the previous difficulty adjustment period was around 342.50 EH/s.
What do you think about Bitcoin’s fourth consecutive difficulty increase? Please share your thoughts on this topic in the comments section below.
Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, coinwarz.com,
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