Drama Laden altcoin Forked Off Bitcoin Sees Hash Drop Leaving Long Wait For Blocks

A sudden 50% drop in hashpower on the BCH network this morning caused it to go 5.5 hours without producing a block (archived). Users likely didn't notice as the next block, 620026, contained only 2.3MB in transactions. The anomaly occurred just days after BCH communist party leaders announced, then seem to have rescinded, a plan to tax miners 12.5% of block rewards.

Iran Detains Tanker For Smuggling Fuel In Persian Gulf

The Revolutionary Guard of Iran has seized a Panamanian flagged tanker which was allegedly smuggling fuel (archived). The smuggling operation was apparently discovered after Revolutionary Guard boats responded to a distress call issued by the tanker. The ship was apparently being loaded with fuel from Iran for transit to foreign ships. This would mean the ship's seizure is a matter of Iranian law enforcement rather than a tit-for-tat response to foreign piracy conducted against ships carrying Iranian oil at sea.

At this time the foreign party receiving smuggled Iranian oil has yet to identify itself.

US Manufacturing On Pause Amid Natural Gas Shortages, Michigan Residents Urged To Lower Thermostats Amid Deep Freeze

Amid deep cold sweeping the heart of the US, General Motors and others have suspended manufacturing in Michigan amid a natural gas shortage (archived). Residential users are being begged to lower their thermostats amid sub zero temperatures and wind chills well below the -40 fahrenheit/celsius intersection point. Last winter Airstrip One faced a severe lack of natural gas as an importer, but the US prides itself on a bountiful natural gas extraction industry. It turns out living in a "developed" country doesn't offer the same protection from winter's chill as it once did. Blame is being laid on a single fire at a single gas compression station.

Mikrotik Routers Leveraged For Brasilero Botnet Mining Recruitment

A number of Mikrotik routers of the sort previously hijacked by the USG for terrorism in Brazil have been pressed into service recruiting botnet miners (archived). Mikrotik routers deployed in carrier and end user application are injecting "Coinhive Javascript Monero Mining (TM)(R)" into http traffic passing through their routes. So far most of the affected routers and traffic have been centered in Brazil with some spread into other geographic regions.

Chinese Auto Giant BYD Building Massive Battery Plant

Chinese automotive and technology giant BYD annouced plans to operate the largest rechargable battery factory in the world by the end of the year. English language publications are drawing comparisons to Tesla and their "gigafactory" painting BYD as a fellow alternate, Chinese Universe startup competing with Tesla (archived). This popular English language posturing ignores BYD's established position selling conventionally fueled vehicles and industial equipment inside and outside of China .

Latest Bitcoin Network Difficulty Adjustment: Up ~19.58 Percent To New All Time High As Chicoms Push Out Local fiat/Bitcoin Trading Interfaces

Mining difficulty on the Bitcoin network skyrocketed nearly twenty  percentage points to 1103400932964.29248047 from 922724699725.96276855 to a new all time high.

While mining difficulty sits at an all time high, the price of Bitcoin reported by fiat/Bitcoin interfaces is sitting roughly twenty percent below the most recent all time high established near the beginning of this month. The United States dollar recovered a small bit of ground against Bitcoin when the racist government of the People's Republic of China decided to ban trading on their local fiat/Bitcoin interfaces. This move by the Chicoms was followed by the a constant stream of "Bitcoin is valueless" editorials in the legacy USian "financial" fake news press.

Bitcoin Network Mining Difficulty Up ~3.9% To New All Time High

The mining difficulty on the Bitcoin network has risen ~3.9 percent to 922724699725.96276855 from 888171856257.32055664 for a new all time high. This is ever so slightly above the previous all time high of 923233068448.90527344 set in the first difficulty adjustment following the schism of a Roger Ver-ified altcoin away from the Blockchain. The continued efforts propping up the Roger Ver-ified chain is proving to be a very expensive proposition for the involved fiat interests.

Bitcoin Network Mining Difficulty Drops ~3.8 Percent To Second Place Versus All Time High

At the latest Bitcoin network mining difficulty adjustment, difficulty fell approximately 3.8 percent from the all time high of 923233068448.90527344 to a new second highest all time value of 888171856257.32055664 today. Aside from typical variance, the possibility of some hashpower  inflicting woe upon a certain altcoin and heroically repatriating BTC value may have contributed to this small drop in difficulty.

Bitcoin Network Mining Diffficulty Up ~7.32% To Another All Time High In First Adjustment After Roger Ver-ified Fork

Mining difficulty on the Bitcoin network has increased from 860221984436.22229004 to 923233068448.90527344 for an increase of approximately 7.32 percent to a new all time high. In this adjustment period a hard forked altcoin separated from the Bitcoin network to zero meaningfully apparent impact on Bitcoin mining, a 7-ish percent increase of mining difficulty to a new all time high is a very typical . Meanwhile, the altcoin is wrestling with its own precarious difficulty situation.