Bitcoin tweeted out to it’s 58 thousand plus followers that their hashrate has it another all-time high, experiencing a 15% increase in the last two weeks.
Bitcoin Hashrate Constantly Climbing
This recent jump and constant rise in hashrate over the past few months shows a consistent level of interest in mining the digital token, despite remaining below the important $8,000 price mark. The upside of this continuous increase in mining is that it results in increased competition between miners creating an ever-improving security of the overall network.
Bitcoin's hashrate just hit another ATH after a 15% increase from two weeks ago.
New hardware is consistently being added to the #bitcoin network. $BTC pic.twitter.com/xQrU6sfb8p
— Bitcoin (@btc) June 18, 2018
The hashrate, in reference to cryptocurrency mining, reflects the number of tries a unit can make when attempting to solve one of Bitcoin’s computational puzzles. The mining units and large amount of electricity it takes to run and cool them add up to a substantial cost. As most miners work on a cost to mining break-even ratio the fact that the hash rate continues to increase, despite the decline in Bitcoin’s price for some analysts predicts the start of another bull session.
Naeem Aslam writing for Forbes commented on a similar situation in May;
“From the data presented we can draw the conclusion that the overall outlook on Bitcoin is bullish, at least in the eyes of the miners. After all, miners would not want to allocate their resources mining a digital asset they believe to be worthless. Miners are in the business to make money and perhaps the downturn in this market will allow them to accumulate more bitcoin at lower prices in preparation for the next Bull Run.”
Are New Bitmain Miners on their Way
The tweet from Bitcoin had some posters bringing up the controversial subject of a new Bitmain miner release in 2018. Speculation over a 2018 release of an S11 miner to render the S9s obsolete has been widely disputed as it would cost Bitmain itself hundreds of millions to replace their own fleet of S9 rigs. Accusations of Bitmain using miners in their own longhouses and then rebranding them and selling them abroad as new would mean that S9s available for purchase now are actually S7s which leaves even less reason for Bitmain to release a new miner into the world.
While some may see the increase in hashrate as a green light for bulls, and others questioning the release of new mining hardware, some are calling it a day for their mining operations altogether. As one follower commented; “And that folks is the end of cloud mining.. Most contracts stopped being profitable 2 weeks ago already.. Another difficulty adjustment and that’s the end.”