Network Hashrate Nears 400 PH/S as More Efficient Hardware Catches up with Lower Bitcoin Prices

After briefly falling below 230 PH/s last month, miners have sent Bitcoin Bitcoin While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that Read this Term's total network Hash Rate Hash Rate A hash rate is the measure of a cryptocurrency miner’s performance and a key security metric. In the context of mining, the more hashing or computing power in a given network, the greater its security and its overall resistance to attackMining hashrate is a key security metric. The more hashing (computing) power in the network, the greater its security and its overall resistance to attack. Hash rate is also a measurement of the output of a device that is used to add transactions to a blockchain A hash rate is the measure of a cryptocurrency miner’s performance and a key security metric. In the context of mining, the more hashing or computing power in a given network, the greater its security and its overall resistance to attackMining hashrate is a key security metric. The more hashing (computing) power in the network, the greater its security and its overall resistance to attack. Hash rate is also a measurement of the output of a device that is used to add transactions to a blockchain Read this Term to nearly 400 PH/s.

One PH/s, or petahash per second, is equal to 1,000 trillion hashes (encryption procedures) generated each second.

The sudden drop in January was likely due to a slew of hardware coming offline, caught off guard by rapidly declining bitcoin prices at the time, and thereby rendering mining operations unprofitable.

The approach to 400 PH/s is its highest ever, more than 12-times the hashrate from 12 months ago.

More efficient hardware has now evolved and come online, gradually replacing predecessors. The advances in efficiency have been enough to outpace the decline in bitcoin prices, which has slowed since the crash in January.

In general, the evolution of hardware was also enough to increase the hashrate by over 30-fold in 2014 despite price declines of over 70%. Indeed, the mining business was a lucrative one earlier on in the year, but margins tightened as prices declined and equilibrium was revisited.

The February jump has entailed an increase in the mining difficulty to over 44,400,000,000, just barely passing the previous high. The next scheduled adjustment is anticipated to bring it to near 47,000,000,000.