A recent analysis of Bitcoin mining activity has shown that Bitcoin Network mining difficulty dropped by 5 percent recently, continuing a three-month downward trend since reaching its all-time high in May 2022. This is the third consecutive downward adjustment of mining difficulty and the first time it has happened since last July, when China banned Bitcoin mining. According to reports, this time the drop in difficulty is a result of U.S. miners turning off their machines in the past two weeks due to soaring electricity prices, as record-breaking heatwaves have lingered. The rising costs of mining have reportedly had significant effects on miners in Texas, which is experiencing hotter-than-usual temperatures that have caused some miners to cease operations in order to accommodate the state's energy grid load. Although extraordinary electricity costs have led some industrial-scale miners in Texas and beyond to curtail their mining activity, some miners may benefit. Analysts believe the lower difficulty is good news for small-scale Bitcoin miners, because reduced difficulty enables miners to confirm transactions using fewer resources, which allows small-scale miners to compete with larger miners for mining rewards.
For more information, please refer to the following links:
- Bitcoin network difficulty drops to 27.693T as hash rate eyes recovery
- Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Drops as Miners Feel the Texas Heat
- Texas a Bitcoin 'hot spot' even as heat waves affect crypto miners
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