According to data provided by CoinWarz, Bitcoin mining difficulty, a metric that shows how many hashes have to be generated to solve the next block, is on track to surpass 100 trillion this week.
After the most recent adjustment, the closely followed metric currently stands at 95.67 trillion after the most recent adjustment, which took place on Oct. 22.
Later today, Bitcoin difficulty is on track to increase by another 6%. This positive adjustment will push the cryptocurrency 101.42 trillion.
Difficulty adjustments, which take place roughly every two weeks, are Satoshi Nakamoto's stroke of genius. They ensure that there is no oversupply or undersupply of new coins. For instance, Bitcoin difficulty tends to drop sharply when there is an exodus of miners due to challenging market conditions (and vice versa).
According to CryptoQuant contributor Yonsei_dent, intensifying mining competition poses challenges for the industry given that there are no sufficient transaction fees. Hence, the sustainability of the mining industry is under threat now that both Bitcoin hashrate and difficulty are at record highs.
During Bitcoin's very first days, the difficulty was one, and the cryptocurrency could be easily mined with an ordinary personal computer. However, as more miners started joining the network, Bitcoin difficulty started growing rapidly.
Over the past three years, it has grown from 21.6 trillion to 95.67 trillion.
In other news, someone recently managed to solo-mine Bitcoin with a single piece of hardware in more than a decade, pocketing the entire block reward.
Dan Burgin
