Effects Of Bitcoin Mining Difficulty’s Second Largest Drop In History
On Dec. 3 Bitcoin’s mining difficulty experienced its second largest drop in its history after a -15 percent adjustment. This is according to data that was provided by BTC.com, a major Chinese mining pool.
It follows the steady fall in the price of the top cryptocurrency that seems to have accelerated since Nov. 14. So, far Bitcoin has lost over a third of its price since Bitcoin Cash contentious hard fork took place.
Crypto Winter Has Seen Bitcoin Lose Value Leading To The Drop-In Mining Difficulty
The hashing difficulty of the top crypto coin is adjusted after every two weeks. This ensures it maintains the regular 10 minute block confirmation time. So far, it has gone through two adjustments since the ‘crypto winter’ began in mid-November.
The period has also coincided with the Bitcoin Cash hard fork that has seen the crypto market lose a substantial amount of value.
According to available data by coinmarketcap.com, Bitcoin’s most significant drop in difficulty occurred on October 31, 2011. It experienced an adjustment of -18 percent.
There was another adjustment in mid-October 2011 where the difficulty level underwent another -13 percent change. That figure is now the third largest decrease.
All the three decreases have been recorded during the bear markets. The recent drop comes amid a meltdown of the entire crypto market which financial experts have attributed to the hash rate war in the BCH camp, regulatory pressure and the terrible condition of the global markets.
Recently, the CEO of F2Pool, one of the leading Bitcoin mining pools, Mao Shixing, revealed that more than 600,000 – 800,000 bitcoin miners had shut down. It’s the result of market panic and coin devaluation.
In September Mao revealed that the break-even point for Bitcoin miners was between $3,891 and $11, 581 depending on the model and make of the equipment being used. At the time, BTC was trading at $6,400.
The recent drop in the price of Bitcoin has seen miners in China reportedly close shop and sell their machine by weight as opposed to price per unit.
But mostly the devices being sold are older models including Avalon A741, Antiminer S7 and Antiminer T9 according to a recent post by F2Pool. These machines have proved unprofitable.
