The difficulty of mining Bitcoin has reached an unprecedented level, making it increasingly challenging for miners to earn block rewards. On May 18, 2023, Bitcoin's difficulty soared by 3.22%, reaching a new peak of 49.55 trillion. This surge in difficulty follows a temporary drop at block height 788,256, where it remained at 48.01 trillion for approximately two weeks.
Bitcoin's difficulty is a measure of the computational effort required to find a hash value that meets the criteria for adding a new block to the blockchain. Currently, miners are dedicating 363.84 exahash per second (EH/s) to the Bitcoin network. The latest difficulty increase occurred at block height 790,272, with the next adjustment expected around May 31, 2023.
Recent data reveals that block intervals are slightly longer than the typical ten-minute average, ranging from ten minutes and 12 seconds to ten minutes and 33 seconds as of May 18. Notably, the leading mining pool during the past 72 hours has been Foundry USA, contributing approximately 109.04 EH/s, followed by Antpool, F2pool, Viabtc, and Binance Pool.
Despite the mounting difficulty, miners have managed to maintain a high hashrate by investing more computational power into the network. Although Bitcoin's price currently sits below the $27,000 range, it is significantly higher than its value of $16,500 at the end of 2022. Moreover, on May 2, the network's hashrate hit an all-time high of 491.15 EH/s at block height 787,895.
Bitcoin miners continue to navigate the challenges posed by increasing difficulty, demonstrating their commitment to securing and maintaining the network's operations.
