Btc Mining Difficulty Reaches Record High of 1,000 Eh/s Due to Rising Hashrate

Hashrate reaches record high of 1000 EH/s

The hashrate – the total computing power of the Bitcoin network – has reached a record 1000 exahash per second (EH/s). That is almost double compared to last year. Never before has the network been secured with so much computing power.

What does hashrate actually mean?

Hashrate refers to how many calculations per second the network performs to find a new bitcoin block. One hash per second means one attempt to find a new block. At 1000 EH/s, that is one trillion trillion calculations per second – or 1 zettahash per second (ZH/s).

Explosive growth in a short time

A year ago, the hashrate was still between 500 and 600 EH/s. That was also a doubling compared to 2023. So the growth is continuing strongly. However, this does not mean that energy consumption also doubles: modern mining equipment is often much more efficient than older models.

Increasing difficulty

Not only is the hashrate growing, the difficulty of mining – the 'difficulty' – has also risen to a record high. At the beginning of 2024 it was still at 71T, now it is already 121T. The 'T' stands for 'trillion', which means that mining is now 121 trillion times harder than it was in 2009.

The network automatically adjusts the difficulty every two weeks, depending on the total computing power. This maintains the average of one new block every ten minutes. This mechanism – the Difficulty Adjustment Mechanism – is crucial for the stability of the Bitcoin network.

More computing power means more security

A major goal of miners is to secure the network. The more computing power is deployed, the harder it becomes to attack the network. For a so-called 51% attack, a party must take over more than half of all computing power – a virtually impossible and very expensive task at this hashrate. More computing power therefore also means: more security.

Health of the mining sector

The rising hashrate shows that the mining sector is growing rapidly. New miners are entering, and existing companies are expanding or upgrading their equipment. However, revenues are limited, as only one block reward is released every ten minutes – currently 3.125 BTC, or approximately €220.000 plus transaction costs.

As more parties participate, the ‘piece of the pie’ per miner is getting smaller. Combine that with increasing difficulty, lower bitcoin prices (down 30% since peak), and rising import costs for equipment – ​​and you get a situation where profitability for miners is under severe pressure.

So why are miners still investing?

Many miners hope for a future increase in the bitcoin price. As long as they can get energy cheaply or attract external investors through, for example, share issuance, they can continue to grow. The big question now is: what if that price increase does not occur?

Questions and answers

What is the hashrate of bitcoin and why is it important?
The hashrate indicates how much computing power the bitcoin network uses. The higher the hashrate, the more secure and robust the network is against attacks.

Why does the difficulty keep rising?
As more and more computing power is deployed, the network automatically adjusts the difficulty every two weeks to ensure that one new block is found approximately every 10 minutes.

Is Bitcoin Mining Still Profitable?
For many miners, it is becoming increasingly difficult. The rewards have halved, the difficulty has increased and the price has fallen. Only efficient companies with cheap electricity or external investors can often still make a profit.