The Bitcoin network has been putting miners in contention lately, with five consecutive increases in difficulty that have put them on edge. However, on May 4, 2023, at block height 788256, the network’s difficulty level decreased, dropping by 1.45%, bringing the total difficulty down to 48.01 trillion over the next two weeks.
Bitcoin difficulty drops after five consecutive increases
Bitcoin’s difficulty level finally dropped on May 4, 2023, after increasing five times since the February 24 increase of 9.95%. The five difficulty increases combined by 22.62%, and the last drop brings it down 1.45% less. The change occurred at bitcoin block high 788256. At the time of writing, the network hash rate is 355.90 exahashes per second (EH/s).
Just a couple of days ago, the Bitcoin network hit a major milestone as its hash rate rose to an all-time high of 491 EH/s on block height 787895. But with the next difficulty adjustment just around the corner on May 18, 2023, and it’s less than 2000 away. building, the miners brace themselves for what’s to come. While the recent drop in difficulty has given them some much-needed respite, the times for the current blocks still hover above the ten-minute average. In fact, the last interval was ten minutes and 49 seconds.
Additionally, the Bitcoin network is currently grappling with a mempool with over 200,000 unconfirmed transactions Waiting to be processed by miners. To speed up the process, users charge a high priority fee of $5.05 per transaction, while a medium priority transfer will set them back $4.61. As for top mining pools On May 4, Foundry USA had the cake with 96.62 EH/s hashing power, which is 27.17% of the total hashrate in Bitcoin. Lagging behind are Antpool (80.38 EH/s), F2pool (48.72 EH/s), Binance Pool (38.16 EH/s) and Viabtc (27.61 EH/s).
What do you think the future holds for Bitcoin difficulty level? Will it continue to rise steadily, or should we expect more declines in the coming months? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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