On March 23, 2023, bitcoin experienced another difficulty increase, following two previous rises in the last month, jumping 7.56% higher. Currently, bitcoin miners have not been deterred by the increases, as the network hashrate has been coasting along at 346 exahash per second (EH/s).

Bitcoin Hashrate Remains High Despite Recent 7.56% Difficulty Rise

As of writing, there are more than 1,700 blocks left until the next difficulty retarget on April 5, 2023. Despite the difficulty increase on March 23 at block height 782,208, the hashrate remains high, and block intervals are still faster than the 10-minute average. The April 5 change is expected to be about 6.9% higher, as block times have been between nine minutes and 21 seconds and nine minutes and 14 seconds.

The increase at block height 782,208 was 7.56% higher than the difficulty over the previous two weeks. Prior to that, on Feb. 24, 2023, at block height 778,176, the difficulty rose 9.95%, and on March 10, 2023, at block height 780,192, the difficulty jumped by 1.16%. This means that over the last six weeks, bitcoin miners have dealt with three consecutive difficulty increases that amount to a total of 18.67%.

Currently, the difficulty is 46.84 trillion and is only 3.16 trillion hashes away from reaching the 50 trillion mark for the first time. If the current estimated 6.9% increase comes to fruition, by April 5, 2023, the difficulty could reach 53.74 trillion. Statistics show that March bitcoin mining revenue may end up slightly lower than February’s $613 million. Incomplete monthly data shows that miners have collected $561 million since March 1.

In the last three days, 488 BTC blocks were mined into existence, with Foundry USA discovering 149 of them. Foundry’s hashrate across the three-day span is around 105.71 EH/s or 30.53% of Bitcoin’s total network hashrate. Foundry is followed by Antpool (73.78 EH/s), F2pool (51.79 EH/s), Binance Pool (34.76 EH/s), and Viabtc (31.93 EH/s). Together, Foundry and Antpool command 51.84% of Bitcoin’s global hashrate.

What do you think the future holds for bitcoin miners as the difficulty continues to increase? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 6,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

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The bitcoin mining operation, Mawson Infrastructure Group, Inc., announced that the firm has broken ground at a new site in Sharon, Pennsylvania. Reports detail that Mawson has delivered six modular production units capable of housing 3,528 application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) bitcoin miners, or approximately 12 megawatts (MW) of capacity. The new Mawson site is capable of reaching 4.2 exahash per second (EH/s) when fully complete.

Mawson Deploys Six Modular Bitcoin Mining Data Centers in Sharon, Pennsylvania

Sharon, a city in western Mercer County, Pennsylvania, now has a bitcoin mining facility used by Mawson Infrastructure Group, a crypto mining operation and digital infrastructure provider. Mawson told the Youngstown Publishing’s Business Journal Daily that the company delivered six modular data centers capable of holding approximately 3,528 ASIC mining rigs.

The miners will consume 12 MW of capacity, but the site can hold up to 35,280 ASIC bitcoin mining rigs, according to Mawson. The firm said the more than 35,000 mining rigs will produce around 4.2 EH/s of SHA256 hashpower, and the first 12 MW will be online during the next quarter.

Bitcoin miners, in general, have had a hard time dealing with the crypto market’s downturn, and some mining operations went bankrupt due to losses. However, 2023 has been better as BTC prices have increased significantly over the past two months. On the same token, the network’s difficulty reached an all-time high this week at 43.05 trillion hashes.

Mawson stated that the new mining operation in Pennsylvania will be divided between Mawson’s self-mining and the company’s hosting services. The first six modules should be online by the second quarter, and the remaining 120 megawatts should come online throughout the rest of 2023 and into early 2024, the company said.

Mawson also operates a 100-megawatt site in Midland, Pennsylvania, and the two bitcoin mining sites combined will produce an estimated 7.8 exahash per second (EH/s). The Sharon site launch “is further proof of Mawson’s push to deploy infrastructure and energize through 2023 and to achieve our previously stated targets,” said Liam Wilson, the chief operating officer of the bitcoin mining site, in a statement.

Like many publicly traded bitcoin mining operations, Mawson’s shares on Nasdaq have not performed well over the last few months. Six-month statistics indicate that the shares are down 39.50%, and 30-day metrics show the stock has dropped 11.55% against the U.S. dollar.

What do you think about Mawson launching a bitcoin mining site in Sharon, Pennsylvania and exiting Australia? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 6,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

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Paraguay, one of the smallest countries in Latam, has the conditions needed to become the next Bitcoin mining hub in the region, according to mining insight group Hashrate Index. The company notes there are many elements in favor of Paraguay, including the abundance of clean hydroelectric power sources. However, the stance that the government has taken toward cryptocurrency mining could slow this growth process.

Paraguay Has All the Elements to Become a Bitcoin Mining Power in Latam, According to Insight Group

Paraguay, a country not especially known for its crypto affiliations, is now being considered one of the most attractive destinations in Latam for bitcoin miners. According to mining insight company Hashrate Index, the country presents a series of benefits that could help it become one of the biggest cryptocurrency hubs in the region.

The first advantage that Paraguay has over other countries in the area, and what made it an attractive location for miners after the Chinese miner exodus, is the abundance of clean, cheap hydroelectric power, that can be used to build large bitcoin mining operations. Most of this power comes from the Itaipu Dam, with Paraguayans reportedly consuming only about 10% of the power produced.

While most of this energy gets exported to neighboring countries, it can be sourced to power big mining operations in the future, according to the group.

Some Disadvantages

Hashrate Index says there are currently two different disadvantages of choosing Paraguay as a destination for establishing a bitcoin mining operation. One is the climate in the summer, which can reach high temperatures and high humidity, affecting the longevity of air-cooled mining rigs.

The other, and perhaps the most significant one, has to do with the unfavorable opinion that the government has of Bitcoin mining activity. The president of Paraguay, Mario Abdo, criticized the industry in the decree used to veto the cryptocurrency law approved by the Paraguayan congress last year.

Abdo stated that cryptocurrency mining was an activity “characterized by its high consumption of electrical energy, with intensive use of capital and little use of labor.” He also warned about the future of the activity in the country, and the possibility of having to import power if the industry keeps growing in Paraguay.

This vision has led the national power company to penalize the industry, applying a power fee hike of over 50% in January, which affects already established miners in the country, lowering their earning margins and making them unable to offer hosting services for third parties.

What do you think about Paraguay and its potential future as a crypto-mining hub in Latam? Tell us in the comments section below.

Sergio Goschenko

Sergio is a cryptocurrency journalist based in Venezuela. He describes himself as late to the game, entering the cryptosphere when the price rise happened during December 2017. Having a computer engineering background, living in Venezuela, and being impacted by the cryptocurrency boom at a social level, he offers a different point of view about crypto success and how it helps the unbanked and underserved.

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