The mining difficulty has risen to 220,755,908,330.3723, which is 1.56% above the previous value, corresponding to a network hashrate around 1.6 EH/s.
Category Archives: Mining
Cost Of Wrong Kitty Litter Escalates Into The Billions Following Nuclear Waste Accident
The Los Angeles Times reports that the estimated cost of cleaning up a 2014 underground containment failure at a nuclear waste storage site in New Mexico is climbing past the two billion United States dollar mark (archived). The failure occurred at a facility located within an underground salt dome. A container holding Plutonium and Americium waste failed because organic kitty litter used as a binding agent reacted with the waste creating gas that lead to an explosion reportedly contaminating 35% of the space in the underground facility. Using inert mineral kitty litter would have prevented this accident.
The accident has lead to a cavalcade of fail1 as the facility's unsafety has lead to delays in sequestering waste from "temporary" storage at former nuclear weapons facilities including the notorious Hanford Site there. This means that in addition to the costs imposed by attempts to restore this salt dome to safety the accident has forced the United States Government to breach agreements with a number of state and local governments for failure to dispose of their nuclear trash according to agreed upon schedules. It has also threatened to bring the United States into violation of International Treaties with Russian and other nuclear powers on the reduction of weapons grade material.
The immediate cost of cleaning up after this breach is set to eclipse the Three Mile Island incident in absolute dollars, and the total cost imposed by the fallout is likely to eclipse Three Mile Island in inflation adjusted dollars. The latest alleged USMS auction of Silk Road-ish Bitcoins at 1.6 million United States dollars for 2700 Bitcoins can do nothing for the fiat order when it has debts like this. Sorry for your loss, but you should have read the label on that kitty litter.
This is not unlike the situation US farmers chose trading their windbreaks and their neighbor's orchards for a season's soybean harvest. ↩
Network Difficult Hits New High In Third Post Halving Adjustment
Bitcoin network mining difficult climbed ~7.67 percent to a new all time high of 217375482757.23764038, up from 213492501107.51336670 where it fell after a small drop last adjustment. The drama outlook remains Bullish with Bitfinex following the path of earlier your losses, we're sorry.
Network Difficulty Experiences Modest Drop Of ~5.4% In Second Change Post Halving
Bitcoin network difficulty fell ~5.43 percent from 213492501107.51336670 to 201893210853.05895996 in its second adjustment following the second halving of the Bitcoin block reward subsidy. The first adjustment following the halving was a very slight increase in difficulty. Paired with the bleeding and breaking occurring among fiat/Bitcoin interfaces it looks like the short term forecast is "there will be lulz."
First Difficulty Adjustment After Halving: Very Slight Increase
The Bitcoin network mining difficulty went from 213398925331.32391357 t0 213492501107.51336670 an increase of 0.04385016% in the first difficulty adjustment after the network's second halving. Prices reported by fiat/Bitcoin interfaces have been similarly stable staying with the number of United States dollars required to purchase a Bitcoin remaining in the middle 600s much of the time. HODL on!
Antminer Flaw Allows Machine Takeover
An Australian security researcher has discovered a flaw in Antminer Bitcoin miners that can be leveraged with CGMiner to obtain complete control of the victim's mining resources. Tim Noise stated that the majority of devices are configured from the factory with a web interface without a password set, which can then be silently adjusted to redirect the mining proceeds to the attackers wallet. Further lulz were had when it was noted that the OpenWRT software is running most operations, including CGMiner as root user. The flaw was tested on the ubiquitous Antminer S5, and Noise is currently testing the proof of concept on the S7 series of devices to see if it can be duplicated. He has posted his version of the exploit code, dubbed "Queen Ant" on shithub. BitMain did not comment on the announcement.
Bitcoin Foundation Chair On Bitcoin's Second Halving
Today, Saturday, July 9th 2016, the Bitcoin block reward subsidy has been halved from 25 BTC per block, to 12.5 per block. This is the second block reward halving event to have occurred during the time of our most serene republic. The first reward halving was nearly four years ago on November 28th, 2012, which reduced the subsidy from 50 BTC to 25 BTC per block. The Bitcoin protocol schedules these reductions automatically: every 210,000 blocks.
At the time of this writing, we are currently at block 420,011. The total number of bitcoins in circulation is 15,750,050, or about 75% of the total 21 Million coins to be mined.
Today, we diligently watch the blockchain and celebrate in our chamber, #trilema. Join in, or follow along by reading the congressional transcript.
Starting with block 630,000, the next reward subsidy will become 6.25 BTC per block. See you then!
Viva Bitcoin y La Serenissima
mod6 (WOT:mod6) is a co-chair of the Bitcoin Foundation
The Bitcoin Block Reward Has Halved A Second Time
As of the recently mined block 420,000 the Bitcoin network has now halved its mining subsidy from 25 Bitcoin to 12.5 Bitcoin. The first halving took the subsidy from the 50 Bitcoin reward this new world was born with to 25 Bitcoin. As always miners are still free to take less than the maximum subsidy when mining a block though few seem to ever make this choice. This second halving also marks three quarters of all Bitcoin to ever exist having been introduced into circulation. Hodl up!
Bitcoin Network Difficulty Up ~1.88% With Subsidy Halving Days Away
Bitcoin network difficulty went up 1.88 percent from 209453158595.38098145 to 213398925331.32391357 today. This is the last difficulty adjustment before the mining subsidy is cut in half at block 420,000.1 At press time we are at block 419376. Tick, tock, tick, tock!
It also coincides with the anniversary of the BIP 66 Clusterfuck event. Imagine that. Bitcoin has enough history for major "This day in history" type events to begin filling up a calendar. ↩
Network Difficulty Up 6.83% As Halving Looms
The Bitcoin network mining difficulty moved up nearly seven percent from 196,061,423,939.64996338 to 209,453,158,595.38098145 crossing two hundred billion and setting yet another all time high. Since we last checked in on prices reported by fiat/Bitcoin interfaces, it now requires another 200 more dollars to acquire a single Bitcoin. The long awaited end of the cheap Bitcoin appears to be nearing. Cheap ether however remains available at your local automotive parts store, look for cans labelled "starting fluid" though Qntra recommends against huffing the sweet vitriol. Sorry for your loss.