Approaching a month after the third Bitcoin halving event and the ripples of that cut in profitability are still impacting the mining situation around Bitcoin. Many thought that the impact would be far greater and that the price of the coin would also see some play, but it has not been too dramatic.
In saying that there has been an expected easing off of the hashrate as Bitcoin’s mining effort eases off and loses some power due to low profitability in the wake of cutting the rewards by fifty percent. However, Bitcoin is an ongoing system and is able to adjust to such occurrences.
On Thursday, the Bitcoin blockchain adjusted its mining difficulty to 13.7 Trillion with a 9.29% drop and reached the lowest level since January this year. This equates to the eighth largest negative difficulty adjustment in Bitcoin’s history and the eighth instance of two or more consecutive negative adjustments.
Those who were still mining the chain before the drop, and after the halving, would have been doing so with advanced mining rigs that offer high efficiency, or in places where electricity is cheap and does not cut into the profit margin too much.
Chance for returns
The consecutive drops in difficulty for miners means that there is an easier entry back into the Bitcoin blockchain and could see the hashrate once again ramp up. Lower difficulty means that there is less effort needed to solve a block equation and to get access to the rewards, which now sit at 6.25BTC.
But, even the remaining miners who have access to cheap electricity and more state-of-the-art equipment will see the adjustment as good news, since the drop in mining difficulty means Bitcoin has become easier to mine for their machines too
But even as difficulty drops, the hashrate on the network has grown over the past week as miners started switching on newly shipped machines ahead of China’s rainy season.
Bitmain and MicroBT, the two major Chinese mining equipment makers, have been dispatching their most efficient ASIC miners like the AntMiner S19 and WhatsMiner M30S since May.
A healthy system
The difficulty drops, although large and consecutive, are also necessary and have aided Bitcoin in its path through the halving. The impact on the mining sector has been felt, but it has not gone to a point where it was catastrophic.
Bitcoin’s mining system remains healthy and even with the lower hash rate, there are now more chances for that to improve with the difficulty drops, as well as the new mining equipment, and the raining weather in China.