Bitcoin Network Hash Rate Hits New High Amid Price Volatility

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The Bitcoin (BTC) network hash rate hit a fresh ATH, even as the price of the major cryptocurrency struggled to break above the $40,000 mark.

The network’s hash rate reached a new high of 258 PE/s on Thursday before stabilizing around the 220 PE/s mark.

The recent increase in the hash rate of the BTC network signifies the growing number of miners on the blockchain. The Bitcoin network’s hash rate has increased over 400% since China’s ban on crypto mining last year, when it fell below 70 EH/s.

The Bitcoin network managed to recover from the significant drop in the hash rate at the end of last year and only increased in 2022.

The Bitcoin network also saw an increase in mining difficulties to reach new all-time highs, reaching 29.70 trillion. The mining difficulty is adjusted to keep the block generation time of 10 minutes constant. An increase in mining difficulty means that more miners compete to mine the next block.

Related: Bitcoin Miners Think Global Hash Rate Will Grow “Aggressively”

According to data from BTC.com, Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 5% on April 27 and saw three positive and two negative readjustments in 2022. The next difficulty adjustment is scheduled for May 10.

The Bitcoin network has stood the test of time and various regulatory attacks. The increase in mining difficulty and network hash rate also comes at a time when there is a significant push for Bitcoin to shift to proof-of-stake from its current proof-of-work mining consensus.

Greenpeace, along with other climate groups and Ripple (XRP) co-founder and executive chairman Chris Larsen, has launched a new campaign to change Bitcoin into a more environmentally friendly consensus model. However, mainstream Bitcoin proponents continue to advocate for the current mining mechanism because it offers true decentralization.

While Bitcoin’s energy consumption has become a controversial topic, it has often been used to peddle false narratives such as “BTC will use up all the energy by 2022”. With the growing popularity of BTC, clean mining has become a priority for several mining companies.

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