While Bitcoin’s mining difficulty was expected to decrease two days ago on June 8, instead the difficulty increased by 1.29% on Wednesday. On the same day, at block height 739,928, Bitcoin’s hashrate tapped an all-time high (ATH) reaching 292.02 exahash per second (EH/s).
Bitcoin’s blockchain secured by nearly three hundred billion hashes per second
The Bitcoin network has never been stronger this week, with the protocol’s computing power hitting an all-time high on Wednesday. In fact, at 292.02 EH/s, the network approached the 300 EH/s region for the first time.
The last hashrate ATH took place on May 2, 2022, at Bitcoin block height 734,577, when it reached 275.01 EH/s. The jump to 292.02 EH/s 37 days later, was approximately 6.18% higher than the ATH on May 2. The ATH on Wednesday was only 2.73% away from reaching 300 EH/s or 0.3 zettahash per second (ZH/s) range.
The hashrate was so high that the Difficulty Adjustment Algorithm (DAA) that was supposed to decrease increased by 1.29%. Three days ago, June 7, the difficulty was expected to see a reduction of 0.51%.
Despite the 1.29% increase, the difficulty is still lower than the ATH of 31.25 trillion recorded on May 10, 2022. The network’s difficulty is currently at 30.28 trillion and it is expected to remain at that metric until the retarget date on June 21. That’s roughly ten days from now or around 1,600 blocks away until the next DAA change.
At 292 exahashes per second, two hundred and ninety-two quintillion hashes per second (H/s) were dedicated to Bitcoin blockchain security on Wednesday. Three-day stats show Foundry USA was the top mining pool, with fifty-two quintillion four hundred and twenty quadrillion H/s or 52.42 PE/s.
Foundry has discovered 109 Bitcoin block rewards out of the 475 blocks mined during the last 72 hours. Antpool’s hashrate has hovered around 35.11 EH/s or thirty-five quintillion one hundred ten quadrillion H/s. Antpool found 73 blocks out of the 475 blocks found and F2pool captured 32.EH/s and discovered 67 blocks over the last three days.
Current hashrate speeds and the speed needed to mine the next 1,600 blocks will determine the next difficulty change. Currently, using today’s measurements, the difficulty is expected to increase by 1.52% from the current position, but this estimate is subject to change.
