The third increase in mining difficulty is expected on the Bitcoin network.
Bitcoin (BTC) mining will become more difficult this week as forecasts point to the biggest increase in difficulty seen this year. In 2024, we observed one epoch of decline and two epochs of increase. The previous growth, recorded at block height 828,576 on February 2, 2024, marked an increase of 7.33%. Now, according to preliminary calculations, the upcoming growth may vary from 8.45% to 9.2%, which will eclipse the previous adjustment. The mechanism for adjusting the complexity of the network is aimed at maintaining the block creation time on average about ten minutes per block. This correction occurs every 2016 blocks depending on the time required for mining in the previous epoch. If 2016 blocks are mined in less than two weeks, an increase is usually expected. Currently, at the height of block 8З0 287, the intervals between blocks average from 8 minutes 45 seconds to 9 minutes and 7 seconds for each detected block. The seven-day simple moving average (SMA) for Bitcoin hashrate smoothly maintains a rate of 597 exacs per second (Ex/s). During the recent mining of 2016 blocks, the average hashrate recorded during this period was 586.3 Ex/s. Since before the expected fourth halving, scheduled around April 19, 2024
April 2024, 9715 blocks remaining, miners are increasing their computing power to an unprecedented level every few weeks. Last week, hashrate reached an all-time high, and network complexity reached its peak, reaching an unprecedented 75.50 trillion. If the minimum expected increase goes into effect, the problem could exceed the 80 trillion mark.
