Bitcoin Mining Difficulties

Mining difficulty represents the likelihood of mining Bitcoin by adding a new block to the Bitcoin blockchain. Bitcoin (BTC) launched with a mining difficulty of 1. However, as of November 3, 2020, the difficulty level is approximately 16.7 trillion. This means the chance of your computer mining a new BTC unit is 1 in 16 trillion.

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty hits an all-time high. Mining difficulty is a number that represents the computing power required to mine one Bitcoin. It is updated approximately every two weeks, making it harder as more miners enter the network and easier as they leave.

Mining difficulty has been climbing strongly and steadily over the past year, and on January 30, 2022, it was 26.24 EH/s, but has since risen to 39.35 EH/s, an increase of approximately 50%. Current hash rates mean that Bitcoin miners are currently conducting over 305 password cracking attempts per second in an attempt to solve the computational equations required to generate Proof of Work (PoW) cryptocurrencies.

Additionally, the mining difficulty is adjusted approximately every two weeks, after 2,106, when a new block is added. This is done based on increasing or decreasing mining competition. The difficulty of mining Bitcoin units is soaring, while mining rewards are getting thinner due to the Bitcoin halving. During the recent Bitcoin halving event on May 11, 2020, mining rewards dropped to 6.25 BTC per block. Nonetheless, advancements in mining hardware have made Bitcoin mining very profitable for some miners.