The network’s mining difficulty decreased by 1.26% at block height 731 8,088, on April 14. Bitcoin miners received their third win this year. As hashrate rose after the difficulty decrease, miners now have more than 200 exahash/s in computational power to mine the Bitcoin blockchain. Bitcoin miners still have 108,160 blocks before the bitcoin reward halving, which is expected to take place on or around May 3, 2024.
In 2022, Bitcoin miners get their third break
Bitcoin’s mining difficulty adjustment algorithm, (DAA), dropped on Thursday. The parameter fell by 1.26% at block high 731,808. This is the third DAA decrease in 2022. The difficulty fell by 0.35% and 1.49% respectively on March 17th and March 3. The DAA fell seven times in 2021. On March 17, 2021, it dropped by 0.35% and by 1.49% respectively. BTC hashrate has increased since the change and hovers just above the 200 EH/s area.
Miners will find it easier to find blocks with the 1.26% decrease in difficulty. The difficulty was 28.59 trillion just two weeks ago, and is now at 28.23 trillion today. As of the writing, there were 1,982 blocks remaining until the next DAA update. It is currently expected that it will increase, but as it is only two weeks away, the estimate may be quite different. The next DAA update is expected to take place on April 28, 2022. Based on today’s BTC exchange rates and in 751, the current block subsidy is valued at $252,781.
There are still over 100,000 block rewards to go until the Halving. More Bitcoin mining pools join the fray
Bitcoin miners are moving closer to the block reward halving, which is expected to happen on or around May 4, 2022 (although some estimates believe it could be May 3, 2022). BTC miners can expect to see their 6.25 BTC block price drop in half to 3.125 BTC block. The network currently produces 900 Bitcoin per day (144 block), and Bitcoin’s annual inflation rate is 1.74%. 90.53% of all bitcoins ever created have been issued and 1,988,481.23 are still available.
Foundry USA has been the top-ranked mining pool for the past three days, with 72 blocks discovered and 16.63% (or 33.54 EH/s) of hashpower. There are now 14 pools that have been identified as mining bitcoin, compared to 11 weeks ago. Unknown hashrate, or stealth miners, currently control 1.39% or 2.8 EH/s of global hashrate. Unknown hashpower managed to obtain six blocks in the last three days.
