Bitcoin mining difficulty increases for the fourth time following July’s block reward halving

Due to the use of efficient mining equipment and the increasing demand for Bitcoin, the difficulty of Bitcoin mining has increased again.

The difficulty of Bitcoin mining has increased once again. As reported on September 12, 2016, the difficulty of Bitcoin mining has increased by 2.3% from the previous existing level. This is the fourth increase in the difficulty of mining (the fifth correction) since the Bitcoin mining reward was halved in early July.

Today, the mining difficulty is 225,832,872,179, compared to the previous mining difficulty of 220,755,908,330. Meanwhile, the hash rate of the Bitcoin network has increased from 1,580,232,334 GH/s to 1,616,574,667 GH/s during the same time period.

Bitcoin mining difficulty and block generation time

The mining difficulty correction is a feature built into the Bitcoin software that ensures that blocks are generated at an uninterrupted time. The ideal time for the Bitcoin network to find/generate a block is 10 minutes. The block generation time is directly related to the mining difficulty level and the hash rate of the network. The use of the latest mining hardware equipment has improved mining efficiency and increased the hash rate of the entire Bitcoin network. This in turn will greatly reduce the time it takes to find a block. These situations will cause the Bitcoin network to take corrective measures to increase the mining difficulty of Bitcoin mining. These corrective measures will keep the block generation time at the specified 10 minutes.

Bitcoin mining difficulty and price

Mining difficulty also has a direct correlation with Bitcoin price. Comparison with Bitcoin price trends shows that an increase in mining difficulty leads to an increase in Bitcoin price and vice versa. The recent increase in mining difficulty is due to the expansion of mining activities, the introduction of more powerful mining equipment and the increase in demand for digital currency. As can be seen in the past two weeks, the price of Bitcoin has risen significantly since the drop in August due to the Bitfinex incident. The increase in the value of Bitcoin coincides with the recent increase in Bitcoin mining difficulty.

The difficulty correction function ensures that the Bitcoin network can provide a continuous, stable supply of Bitcoin. It prevents miners from investing in more powerful equipment to mine more digital currency, which would otherwise increase the supply and thus reduce the price of Bitcoin. The continuous reward combined with the mining control ensures that miners continue to support the Bitcoin network at least until all blocks are mined.

Comparison of Bitcoin block time and mining difficulty shows that block time is decreasing. Based on this situation, we can expect Bitcoin mining difficulty to continue to increase in the coming weeks.