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During the last month, Bitcoin’s hashrate has been coasting along above the 200 exahash per second (EH/s) zone, minus a number of drops here and there above and below that range. After two difficulty changes, which saw the difficulty drop by 1. 84%, the network’s difficulty is expected to increase 4. 24% within the next 13 hours.

Bitcoin’s Difficulty Expected To Reach All-Time High

Bitcoin miners got two breaks in the last month, when difficulty dropped twice in a row. The first was 1. 49% drop occurred at block height 725,760 on March 3, 2022, and the second decrease was a 0. 35% drop, which occurred at block height 727,776 on March 17, 2022.

The two consecutive drops made it 1. 84% easier for all the mining participants to find BTC blocks. While the difficulty was 27. 97 trillion prior to the two reductions, the current difficulty is 27. 45 trillion on Wednesday morning at 8: 00 a.m. (ET). Within the next 13 hours, the difficulty is expected to increase this time around, jumping 4. 24% higher if current estimations are correct.

With an expected 4. 24% difficulty increase taking place, Bitcoin’s network difficulty will break records by reaching an all-time high (ATH). If the difficulty rises 4. 24%, then the difficulty will be 28. 62 trillion for the next two weeks that follow. The next two weeks will see miners deal with the most difficult difficulty parameter in their mining career.

Moreover, the difficulty changes that have taken place since January 1, 2020, after block height 610,848, moved at the fastest pace in the network’s lifetime. For instance, it took 4,015 days to get to a difficulty rating of 13. 80 trillion, or over ten years. From that point after block height 610,848, with a difficulty rating of 13. 80 trillion, it took only 820 days or just over two years to reach the current 27. 45 trillion.

At the time of writing, the network’s hashrate is coasting along at 204. 27 EH/s and has remained high during the last two weeks. While the hashrate has been fluctuating it has tapped a low of 153. 97 EH/s on March 6, and a high of 246. 88 EH/s on March 22. At the same time, the top mining pool on Wednesday is Foundry USA with 17. 54% of the global hashrate. Foundry USA has 35. 88 EH/s of hashpower and has found 77 blocks during the last three days.

In terms of global hashrate positions Foundry USA is followed closely by Antpool and Binance Pool. Poolin is next, while F2pool and F2pool are behind. Over the last 30 days, Foundry USA and Antpool have been the top two mining pools finding the most blocks (1,480 blocks combined) last month. It will be fascinating to see how mining pools handle the upcoming difficulty ATH. The epoch difficulty change will be closely watched by observers.

What do you think about the network’s upcoming difficulty change? Please comment below to let us know your thoughts on this topic.

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