bitcoin hashrate, the computing power of the network, has hit levels last seen in November 2018. Bitmain-operated hashrate, however, has hit its lowest point in the last 16 months.
bitcoin Hashpower at a 3-Month High
As of yesterday, February 7th, ₿itcoin hashrate has hit over 50 quintillion hashes per second according to from Blockchain.com.
The last time the computing power of ₿itcoin’s network saw these levels was in November 2018.
The rise in hashrate translates into new miners joining the network as the mining difficulty has dropped for the first time in 2019 by about 1.5 percent at the end of January.
Bitcoinist at the beginning of the year that ₿itcoin mining difficulty has adjusted 10% upwards for the first time in months as the hashrate started to stabilize following November’s decline.
The uptick could be a bullish sign for ₿itcoin price as some believe miners invest in the future spot price of ₿itcoin.
“Price follows hashrate and hashrate chart continues its 9 yr bull market,” Wall Street veteran, Max Keiser.
Others, like Casa CTO, Jameson Lopp, that its the other way around as miners are speculating on some future price of ₿itcoin. Lopp explains:
Hashrate follows price. Some folks believe price follows hashrate, possibly because hashrate doesn’t simply track ~spot~ price, but rather tracks some ~speculative~ future price. Miners are speculators too!
Bitmain Losing Market Share
In the first half of 2018, Bitmain-operated hashrate through Antpool and BTC.com was peaking. to data from BTC.com, both pools attributed to over 40 percent of the entire network’s computing power.
Their dominance, however, has been shrinking ever since. At press time, BTC.com and Antpool combined control less than 30 percent of the network’s hashrate, to Blockchain.com.
The last time Bitmain’s share was so low was at the beginning of October 2017 – 17 months ago.
Indeed, the second half of last year has turned out to be rather challenging for the company as in the third quarter cast serious doubts over its financial condition.
Bitcoinist in late 2018 that Bitmain’s monopoly was collapsing as it its mega mining facility project on ice in Rockdale, Texas. The company was its entire ₿itcoin Cash development team.
In any case, as Bitmain loosens its grip on ₿itcoin mining, ₿itcoin mining seems to be getting , which increases security and eliminates the possibility of a 51 percent attack.
Is hashrate icreasing a good sign for price? Don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, blockchain.com
Published at Fri, 08 Feb 2019 14:00:26 +0000
