First In History: Bitcoin Miners Now Need More Than 1 EH/s Of Power To Mine 1 BTC

On-chain
data
shows
that,
for
the
first
time
in
history,
Bitcoin
miners
require
more
than
1
EH/s
of
daily
computing
power
to
mine
just
1
token
of
the
asset.

Bitcoin
Hashcoin
Has
Set
A
New
All-Time
High
Now

As
explained
by
CryptoQuant
head
of
research
Julio
Moreno
in
a

post
on
X,
the
BTC
Hashcoin
has
set
a
new
record.
The
“Hashcoin”
here
refers
to
an
indicator
that
keeps
track
of
the
daily
Hashrate
miners
require
to
produce
1
BTC.

The

Hashrate
measures
the
computing
power
that
the
miners
have
attached
to
the
Bitcoin
network.
This
metric
is
measured
in
terms
of
hashes
per
second,
or,
in
the
much
bigger
and
more
practical
unit
these
days,
exahashes
per
second
(EH/s).

The
total
Hashrate
on
the
blockchain
has
been
near
its
all-time
high
(ATH)
recently,
as
its
7-day
average
value
is
sitting
at
638
EH/s.
The
chart
below
shows
the
trend
in
this
indicator
over
the
past
year.

The value of the metric seems to have been heading up during this period | Source: Blockchain.com

A
core
feature
of
the
Bitcoin
blockchain
is
that
the
block
time
on
the
network
(that
is,
the
rate
at
which
miners
solve
blocks)
remains
relatively
constant
at
a
standard
10
minutes
per
block.

This
feature
exists
because
miners
receive
block
rewards
for
solving
blocks,
which
are
the
only
way
to
mint
new
tokens
of
the
cryptocurrency.
By
ensuring
that
these
blocks
are
given
out
at
a
constant
rate,
the
asset’s
growth
remains
stable,
and
its
inflation
is
predictable.

Consequently,
no
matter
how
much
Hashrate
the
miners
add
to
the
network,
they
won’t
become
faster
at
mining
blocks
in
the
long
term.

The
extra
computing
power
will
initially
make
them
earn
rewards
faster,
but
only
until
the
next
biweekly

Difficulty
adjustment,
where
the
chain
would
make
the
miners’
job
just
hard
enough
to
counteract
any
benefits
of
the
extra
power.

Since
the
rewards
stay
capped
in
this
manner,
an
increase
in
the
Hashrate
means
that
the
distribution
of
rewards
between
the
individual
power
units
becomes
smaller.

Thus,
whenever
the
total
network
Hashrate
goes
up,
an
individual
miner
has
to
increase
their
power
by
the
same
percentage
to
remain
competitive
with
the
chain.

In
other
words,
the
earlier
mentioned
“Hashcoin”
goes
up
when
the
Hashrate
rises.
As
the
Hashrate
has
been
near
ATH
recently,
the
Hashcoin
has
also
been
relatively
high.

Looks like the value of the metric has spiked in recent days | Source: CryptoQuant

The
chart
shows
that
the
Bitcoin
Hashcoin
has
observed
sharp
growth
recently
and
has
hit
a
new
ATH.
But
the
Hashrate
has
been
moving
sideways,
so
where
did
this
spike
come
from?

The
answer
lies
in
the

fourth
Halving,
which
occurred
on
April
19th.
Whereas
the
Difficulty
ensures
the
inflation
rate
of
the
asset
remains
constant,
the
Halving
is
a
measure
to
cut
this
rate
actively.

Block
rewards
are
slashed
in
exactly
half
during
these
events,
which
take
place
roughly
every
four
years,
and
that
has
naturally
been
the
case
with
the
latest
one
as
well.

With
the
block
rewards
now
halved,
miners
can
only
produce
half
as
much
as
before,
which
is
why
the
Hashcoin
has
spiked.
Miners
now
need
1.13
EH/s
to
mine
a
single
token
every
day.

BTC
Price

At
the
time
of
writing,
Bitcoin
is
trading
at
around
$62,900,
down
5%
over
the
past
week.

The price of the asset appears to have been moving down recently | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView

Featured
image
from
Dmytro
Demidko
on
Unsplash.com,
Blockchain.com,
CryptoQuant.com,
chart
from
TradingView.com