Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Crosses 144 Billion With 20.06% Rise

Mining difficulty is now 144,116,447,847.34866333, 20.06% above the previous value. This is the largest increase since August 19th, 2014, and is thus the largest increase covered by Qntra to date. Transaction fees totalled 530.03566591 Bitcoins, comprising 1.04% of total miner rewards, a similar rate to the previous period; for context, this rate was 0.77% in the antepenultimate, and 0.83% at the close of yesteryear. Stay tuned as Bitcoin's supply inflexibility keeps increasing usage costs to compensate for impending disinflation.

Mining Difficulty Already Up 9.12% This Year

While pundits seek alpha amid omega, fiat flows on towards its only good use: subsidizing Bitcoin mining. The new difficulty of 113,354,299,801.4711`3037 (a 9.12% increase over the 2015 close) pushes hashpower estimates over 850 PH/s, placing what nobody could've predicted merely 17.6% away (readily attainable in a single leap, should miners quit dicking about and resume their one fucking job).

Difficulty Rises 11.16% Adding A New Digit At 103,880,340,815

Just in time for the 2016th (incidentally, the number of blocks in Bitcoin's shorter metric of elapsed time) year of the fiat calendar, Bitcoin added a new digit to its difficulty decimal, now equal to 103,880,340,815 (an increase of 11.16% over the previous value, placing hashrate estimates over 690 PH/s.). While such increases used to be noteworthy, they pale in the shadow of the last leap (December 18th's 18.14% increase, to 93,448,670,796), leaving thin-margined miners nervously wondering whether they'll ever make good on the forecasts of yesteryear. Continue reading

Bitcoin Difficulty Jumps By Six-Month Record

Today's difficulty adjustment to 65`848`255`179.7, a rise of 5.77%, is notable as both the tenth consecutive increase — a streak the likes of which has not occurred for nearly a year — and the largest increase since April 5th, when difficulty rose by 5.84%. This ongoing rise should come as no surprise: naive estimates (archived) place the next reward halving on July 24th, so work must accelerate to realize the market's prediction of July 20th.