First in History: Bitcoin Miners Now Need More Than 1 EH/s of Power to Mine 1 BTC
As explained by CryptoQuant’s head of research, Julio Moreno, in an email to X, BTC Hashcoin has set a new record.
On-chain data shows that for the first time in history, Bitcoin miners require more than 1 EH/s of daily computing power to mine just 1 token of the asset.
Bitcoin Hashcoin Has Set a New All-Time High Now
The “Hashcoin” here refers to an indicator that tracks the daily Hashrate that miners need to produce 1 BTC. Hashrate measures the computing power that miners have connected to the Bitcoin network. This metric is measured in terms of hashes per second or, in a much larger and more practical unit today, exahashes per second (EH/s).
The total Hashrate on the blockchain has been close to its all-time high (ATH) recently as its 7-day average value is 638 EH/s.
A central feature of the Bitcoin blockchain is that the block time on the network (that is, the speed at which miners solve blocks) remains relatively constant at a standard 10 minutes per block. This feature exists because miners receive block rewards for solving blocks, which are the only way to mint new tokens of the cryptocurrency.
By ensuring that these blocks are delivered at a constant rate, the asset’s growth remains stable and its inflation is predictable. Consequently, no matter how much Hashrate miners add to the network, they will not be faster at mining blocks in the long term.
Initially, the additional computing power would make them earn rewards faster, but only until the next bi-weekly difficulty adjustment, where the chain would make the miners’ job difficult enough to offset any benefit from the additional power. Since rewards remain limited in this way, an increase in Hashrate means that the distribution of rewards between individual power units becomes smaller.
Therefore, every time the network’s total Hashrate increases, an individual miner has to increase their power by the same percentage to remain competitive with the chain. In other words, the Hashcoin mentioned above increases when the Hashrate increases.
As Hashrate has been close to ATH recently, Hashcoin has also been relatively high. Bitcoin Hashcoin has seen strong growth recently and has reached a new ATH.
However, the Hashrate has been moving sideways, so where did this spike come from? The answer lies in the fourth Halving, which occurred on April 19.
While difficulty ensures that the asset’s inflation rate remains constant, the halving is a measure to actively reduce this rate. Block rewards are cut exactly in half during these events, which take place approximately every four years, and naturally, that has been the case with the last one as well.
With block rewards now halved, miners can only produce half as much as before, which is why Hashcoin has skyrocketed. Miners now need 1.13 EH/s to mine a single token each day.
BTC Price
Bitcoin is trading at around $62,900, down 5% from last week. According to CryptoPredictions, Bitcoin started in April 2024 at $68,596,892 and is predicted to end the month at $76,975,058. During April, the maximum forecasted BTC price is $68,259.996 and the minimum price is $46,416.797.
Bitcoin is predicted to start in May 2024 at $66,935,998 and end the month at $51,767,170. During May, the maximum forecasted BTC price is $68,302.039 and the minimum price is $46,445.386.
The BTC Price is forecast for today (30.04.2024) to be in the $56,609.085 – $83,248.655 price range. Bitcoin is predicted to end today at $66,598,924.
By Leonardo Perez