Proactive Investors - Bitcoin mining difficulty, which measures the computational power required to validate transactions in order receiving mining rewards, has hit an all-time high of 48 trillion terahashes, more than a 68% year-on-year increase.
Each ‘hash’ represents an arbitrary equation required to mine a bitcoin block and earn the rewards, meaning that it currently takes 48 trillion computations per bitcoin mined.
The sharp spike in difficulty coincides with a near-record amount of global computational power being directed at bitcoin mining amid a significant rise in bitcoin’s spot price.
Bitcoin, the world’s benchmark cryptocurrency, shot above US$30,000 for the first time in 10 months this week following an 80% year-to-date rally.
Bitcoin mining difficulty is used to maintain bitcoin’s 10-minute average block time, increasing in times of heightened activity and decreasing when fewer miners are active in order to attract more miners to help keep the network secure.
Difficulty is adjusted every two weeks, with the most recent adjustment occurring on April 6.