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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After a small decrease of 0.49% on Feb. 12, 2023, Bitcoin’s network difficulty is expected to experience a significant increase in three days on Feb. 24. Estimates indicate the difficulty could see the largest rise of the year, surpassing the 10.26% increase that occurred on Jan. 15 at block height 772,128.

Next Bitcoin Difficulty Change Estimated to Jump 10.78% to 11.5% Higher

In 2022, Bitcoin’s hashrate remained above the 200-exahash-per-second (EH/s) range. However, in 2023, 300 EH/s seems to be the new norm. According to statistics, over the last 2,016 blocks, Bitcoin’s hashrate has averaged around 310.5 EH/s. Additionally, bitcoin block times have ranged from 8 minutes and 55 seconds to 8 minutes and 68 seconds, which is faster than the 10-minute average. The high hashrate and quicker block times indicate a significant increase in difficulty, which is expected to occur on Feb. 24.

Statistics indicate that the upcoming difficulty adjustment, scheduled for Friday, will be the largest of the year, surpassing the previous record set on Jan. 15. The estimated increase for the Feb. 24 adjustment is expected to be between 10.78% and 11.5%. The current difficulty is approximately 39.16 trillion hashes, and the next difficulty adjustment is likely to push it above 40 trillion. A 10.78% increase would result in a difficulty rating of approximately 43.35 trillion hashes. Regardless of the final outcome, an increase in difficulty will make it more challenging for bitcoin miners to discover new blocks.

At the time of writing, the mining pool Foundry USA commands 33.33% of the network hashrate, or 105.37 EH/s. Antpool accounts for around 18.66% of the global hashrate, dedicating 58.98 EH/s to the Bitcoin blockchain. Together, these two pools captured more than 51% of the pie comprising 13 known pools and 11.93 EH/s of unknown hashpower. Following Foundry and Antpool are F2Pool, Binance Pool, and Viabtc, which collectively control 33.54% of the global hashrate. These top five pools contribute a combined 84.54% of the total hashrate that provides security to the Bitcoin blockchain.

What do you think about the expected significant increase in Bitcoin’s network difficulty? Let us know what you think about this subject 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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