A high difficulty means that mining equipment will require more work to process a block.
The hashrate remains at levels close to its historical maximum, with 721 EH/s.
Yesterday, November 4, 2024, Bitcoin (BTC) mining difficulty reached a new all-time high (ATH), standing at 101.64 terahashes (TH).
In practice, this milestone marks an increase in the computational effort required on the part of miners to validate transactions and generate new blocks on the Bitcoin network, reflecting the increasing complexity that this activity goes through.
That is to say, given this level of difficulty, Bitcoin mining now requires more resources and greater processing capacity to achieve the same result in terms of reward.
As this measurement rises, miners must invest in hardware more powerful and efficient, as well as in electricity and maintenance of its equipment, which would reduce its potential profits.
Additionally, the competition to solve the blocks also intensifies. A greater difficulty in finding blocks reduces the chances of success for each miner separately, especially for those with less processing power.
Increased difficulty also brings benefits to Bitcoin
Despite what was stated above, difficulty is a fundamental factor for the Bitcoin network, since it maintains predictability in the frequency of block mining.
The difficulty of processing blocks on the Bitcoin network is a parameter that is automatically adjusted every 15 days to keep the average block creation time close to 10 minutes.
If that computing power on the network, known as hashrateincreases, the difficulty also rises to maintain this constant pace.
He hashrate of Bitcoin currently is 721 EH/s (exahashes per second), remaining close to its ATH of 734 EH/s (exahashes per second), observed on October 22, 2024.
On the other hand, if the hashrate decreases, the difficulty goes down. This mechanism aims to guarantee the stability and security of the network, adapting to the variation in the number of miners and the power of their equipment. In other words, the network can continue mining blocks always, without interruptions.
On the other hand, in terms of network security, a higher level of difficulty translates into a more secure network and less susceptible to potential attacks, as the cost and power required to carry out a 51% attack increases significantly.
In this way, although with some positive considerations for the operation of the network, this new historical maximum in mining difficulty marks another obstacle in profitability for Bitcoin miners, who face a complex 2024.
An example of this is what CriptoNoticias recently reported days ago: October was the fourth consecutive month in which the profitability of BTC mining fell.
