Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Witnesses Biggest Increase Since January

For the world’s leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, 2022 has been filled with many crests and troughs. Bitcoin has passed through different dilemmas that created a twist for performance and sentiment in the industry. The chronic crypto winter of the year halved the value of most crypto assets, of which BTC got a severe blow.

Though the beginning of the year’s second half brought a little bullish trend, the bears were still quick to take over. But that’s not all it is on the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap. More discoveries for trends in BTC indicators and parameters are still unfolding.

Mining Difficulty Increases

The latest Bitcoin mining difficulty adjustment increased by 9.26%. This current value is the most significant increase for the network since January 2022. Data from BTC.com revealed that on Wednesday, BTC mining difficulty reclaimed its lost value to hit 30.98 trillion. This was against the value of 28.35 trillion as of August 28.

The report from BTC.com gave some estimates for the possible future difficulty adjustment for Bitcoin. From the forecast, BTC would witness a fourth in almost 13 more days. This subsequent adjustment is expected to be a more modest increase reaching 31.16 trillion. If the estimated difficulty occurs, it will spar with the 31.25 trillion of May 10, BTC’s most significant problem.

Additionally, BTC.com provided data on the historical BTC’s mining difficulty from its launch. It observed that the last increase in the mining adjustment exceeds the expected growth of just 7%. Besides the most distinguished record of rising by 9.26% as of January 21, the latest data is the subsequent follow-up in percentage increase.

Bitcoin Hash Rate And Correlation With Mining Difficulty

While calculating the mining difficulty for Bitcoin, it would not be easy to disintegrate it from the BTC hash rate. Increased BTC mining difficulty is equivalent to a high hash rate and vice-versa. The mining difficulty measures the cumulative computational difficulties while mining Bitcoin.

The bearish market trend and the collapse of the Terra ecosystem in May created more distortion for the BTC hash rate. This is due to a drastic drop in Bitcoin price. Hash rate plummeted from its ATH of 253 EH/s in June to 170 ET/s in early August. Subsequently, most miners sold off BTC holding to rip off the effects.

While mining BTC, miners usually gather transactions on the network and hashes them. The cumulative number of hashes the miners produces determines the hash rate. The hashes aid the creation of new blocks on the blockchain. The hash is expected to remain below a certain value level, called the mining difficulty.

With a rise in the hash rate, mining becomes easier and faster for miners. This usually happens when the price of BTC is up. The reverse is the case for a decrease in the hash rate.

Bitcoin trends below $20,000 | Source: BTCUSDT chart from TradingView.com

BTC mining difficulty creates compensation for swings in hash rate through its adjustment every 2016 block and occurs fortnightly. It maintains the production of the average block every 10 minutes.

Featured image from Pixabay and chart from TradingView.com

Ethereum Miners Surpass Bitcoin Miner Revenue By $224M

After the continuous sink in the mining profitability of both digital assets year-on-year, Bitcoin miners have been set back to seats as Ethereum miners consecutively surpassed them in mining revenue and recorded a gap of $224 million in April 2022.

This month was not so good for Bitcoin miners as they were able to generate around $1.16 billion only. Notably, this figure is down by $44 million from the previous month’s mining revenue of Bitcoin. The last month saw $1.7 billion in recorded income.

Related Reading | TA: Ethereum Bears Aim Big After Recent Breakdown Below $2.5K

Bitcoin miners’ total profitability was down by 31% from April 2021 to the present. In that time, $1.7 billion in revenue was recorded.

Similarly, the single-day high of BTC mining revenue in April was 3% low than the peak value of March. As per YCharts, the best-day high in March 2022 lasted at around $47.54 million and $46.01 million in April. And it dropped 23% from the best-day high of January, which saw $60.16 million.

Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum mining revenue in April increased by 3% generating $1.39 billion. While Bitcoin, at the same time, recorded $1.16 billion in mining revenue.

Bitcoin currently trading at $30,700 with a 9.6% decline over the past 24 hours | Source: BTC/USD chart from Tradingview.com

Still, the Ethereum mining revenue has decreased yearly from its previous marks recorded till April. The mining revenue of Ethereum in April 2022 is 17% below the previous year’s mining income of April 2021. Last year it was around $1.68 billion.

Ethereum Becomes Preferred Choice Of Miners In 2022

Although Bitcoin stands as the largest and most popular digital asset, Ethereum has become the most preferred choice of the miners seeing a higher income generated in 2022.

It was not the first time Ethereum outpaced Bitcoin in mining revenue; it surpassed BTC mining by $260 million in January, $190 million in February, and $130 million in March 2022.

To understand the reason behind disparities in the mining incomes of two digital assets, first, it needs to consider the fact that mining revenue is calculated per the value of cryptocurrency and earned coins within a specific timeframe.

Likely, Ethereum mining revenue increased in March 2022 and traded between $3,000 to $4,000 until most of April. And it traded in the range of $2,900 and $3,400 in March.

On the other side, the Bitcoin price in April traded between $37,000 and $44,000. And in March, it had a higher trading value ranging from $43,000 to $48,000.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Price Plummets To Lowest Point In 2022, Will $33,000 Hold?

Crypto mining is the process of verifying and adding new transactions to the blockchain for a cryptocurrency. The miner who wins the competition gets rewards with some amount of the currency and/or transaction fees.

Featured image from Pixabay and chart from TradingView.com

 

Solo Ethereum Miner Hits The Jackpot With 170 ETH For Mining A Block

A solo Ethereum miner has just gotten what could be described as the lucky break of a lifetime after mining a single ethereum block that netted them a reward that ran into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. While ethereum’s mining difficulty is not as high compared to bitcoin, it is still a difficult, energy and computationally intensive process that discourages the average person.

However, a lot of solo miners remain in the ethereum ecosystem and continue to make a profit from their mining activities. Although not all of the miners get to mine a single block that delivers a reward with life-changing money. Such is the case of the solo miner in this report after solving a block that netted them about 170 ETH in rewards.

Ethereum Miner Gets Over $500K Reward

A report from BeInCrypto outlined the activity of a solo ethereum miner that saw an incredible block reward go to the miner. The miner who had found a block and then proceeded to mine it independently got a total of 170.65 ETH in rewards for this. The value of the ETH at the time it was rewarded was roughly $540,000 in rewards which went to this miner.

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Compared to the average reward per block mined in ethereum which is about $13,000, this is no doubt an impressive win for the miner, who has received what is no doubt one of the highest block rewards on the network.

ETH price trading south of $3,000 | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com

Mined on Monday January 17th, the miner got the spoils of their victory in a block that contained 236 transactions, all mined by a solo miner in about 9 seconds. Finding and mining a block like this on the ethereum network is hard and grows increasingly harder as more miners set up operations. Finding one with a block reward of more than 170 ETH is even more unlikely, making this akin to winning the lottery on the part of the miner.

Following With Bitcoin

Although it can be difficult for a solo miner to find and mine blocks all by themselves, receiving the full reward, it is not unheard of that small-time miners have claimed such coveted reports. This happens across various blockchains and ethereum is no exception.

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Bitcoin, which features arguably one of the highest mining difficulties, has seen events like these take place. Last week, Bitcoinist reported that a small-time bitcoin miner had beaten the odds to mine a block all by themselves. This netted them the entire block reward of 6.25 BTC, as well as the transaction reward. In total, the miner made over $267,000 from that single block mined.

The same had also occurred a year prior where Dr. Kolivas, a software engineer that helped develop the CGMiner, recalled that a small-time miner with a low hash rate had also been able to mine a block by themselves and received the full block reward.

Featured image from Zipmex, chart from TradingView.com

Powerbridge Technologies Set To Launch Bitcoin And Ethereum Mining In Hong Kong

Powercrypto Holdings, a subsidiary of the blockchain software provider Powerbridge Technologies, is launching cryptocurrency mining, specifically Bitcoin (BTC)and Ethereum (ETH), in Hong Kong. These cryptocurrency operations will utilize environmental-friendly, green, and sustainable energy. This announcement was made in a press release on Friday, October 8, 2021

Powerbridge Technologies is a growth-driven technology company primarily engaged in SaaS solutions and Blockchain applications.

Launching Crypto Mining In Hong Kong

Powerbridge Technologies plans to deploy a total of 2,600 high-performance mining rigs in Hong Kong, including 600 BTC mining machines working at a hash rate of approximately 60 PH/s. It also includes 2,000 ETH mining machines, with a hash rate power of approximately 1,000 GH/s.

According to the announcement, Powercrypto aims to increase the BTC and ETH hash rate levels across the North American and Asian markets.

Related Reading | Since China’s Mining Ban, Bitcoin Hashrate Has Recovered by 68% And Counting

Sean Wang, Powercrypto’s General Manager and Chief Technology Officer, stated that: “Powercrypto is a major strategic move by the Company to highlight our global presence in the crypto-mining business. We will focus on enhancing our overall hash rate level in BTC and ETH mining by setting up mining fleets in North America and Asia.”

In its global BTC and ETH mining, the company plans to focus on maximizing the use of carbon-free clean energy power. Powerbridge Technologies President Stewart Lor, also commented, “We are very excited about our launch and positioning as a global presence in the cryptocurrency mining business. We expect our high-performance environmental-friendly crypto-mining fleets to significantly accelerate our revenue.”

Related Reading | Value Of Ethereum Held By Miners Reaches Five-Year Record Levels

Powerbridge Technologies states that it plans to increase its bitcoin miners with an expected capacity of 10,000 miners and an expected hash rate of 728 PH/S. Additionally, according to the company, its proprietary AI/GPU operating system can support up to 100,000 ETH miners in operation.

Powercrypto Holdings: A Subsidiary Of Powerbridge Technologies

Powerbridge Technologies established Powercrypto Holdings, its new Singapore-based subsidiary for its Crypto Mining and Digital Asset operations, late last month.

Powercrypto focuses on green renewable energy-powered crypto mining farms with its intended worldwide operations. The announcement states that the subsidiary strives to become one of the most competitive Bitcoin and Ethereum mining companies. The President of Powerbridge Technologies believes that Powerbridge is well-positioned to accelerate the growth of its crypto businesses and generate promising revenue from it.

BTC trading at $54.9K | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

A few days ago, the company announced the appointment of Sean X. Wang as General Manager and Chief Technology Officer of Powercrypto Holdings. Mr. Wang, a blockchain expert, was brought on to lead the operations and technology development of Powercrypto’s crypto mining business. He reportedly has wide-ranging expertise in the fields of crypto mining and digital assets operations, having managed and operated mining fleets with nearly forty thousand Bitcoin and Ethereum mining rigs.

Digital Currencies In Hong Kong

Hong Kong has played a crucial role in the history of cryptocurrencies. It is the birthplace of some of the world’s largest crypto companies. Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin, was also launched here.

Hong Kong is a metropolitan area and special administrative region of China. Therefore, unfavorable regulations have affected the digital assets space in the region. However, it has been making efforts to develop its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), e-HKD since 2017.

Featured image by CoinGeek, Chart from TradingView.com

Meet The 9 And 14-Year-Old Sibling Duo Making $32,000 A Month With Ethereum

According to a report from Dallas News, this sibling duo has been bringing in thousands of dollars mining Ethereum. While most kids are playing with their computers, siblings Ishaan and Aanya Thakur are making money with theirs. The bother-sister duo currently makes $32,000 a month from their Ethereum mining operation which they started in their garage.

The pair had gotten interested in cryptocurrencies after their father had told them about Bitcoin. At the time, the siblings were interested in buying the cryptocurrency, but because the price had grown so much, they opted for mining. But mining for bitcoin had become an oversaturated market, they found. Hence, they opted for the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap; Ethereum.

Related Reading | Crypto Market Cap Inches Closer To $2 Trillion, What To Expect From The Market

They had started by mining Ethereum using an old gaming laptop that they had. And in the first month of mining, they had made $1,000 from their small operation. This motivated the pair to take their activities to the next level, given the profits they had acquired using just an old gaming laptop. Crypto mining requires chips to mine and this is where the siblings ran into their first problem.

COVID-Induced Chip Shortage

Siblings Ishaan and Aanya wanted to expand their mining operations, but due to the pandemic, there has been a chip shortage. Manufacturers had not been able to keep up with demand due to countries going into lockdown and people not being able to go to work. So getting a chip required for mining has become harder than ever. The duo had two options; buy chips from resellers online at a marked-up price or wait for chips to become available. They chose the latter.

Related Reading | Why A Shocking Altcoin Season Could Be On The Horizon

9-year-old Aanya and 14-year-old Ishaan signed up for supply updates from retailers like Best Buy and Micro Center. When chips and hardware needed for their mining operations were available, they would get alerted by email. And the siblings would line up outside the retailers before they opened the next day to be able to get the parts.

This strategy has proven to be profitable for them as the duo has been able to expand their mining operations beyond their home garage. Their rigs were generating too much heat to stay in their home garage and so now they have an air-conditioned data center in downtown Dallas where they keep most of their mining rigs. While they still keep about 30 cards in their garage.

Expanding The College Fund With Ethereum

The siblings save most of their returns from mining. But they have had to sell some portions of their crypto in order to pay for things like electricity and parts to expand their mining operation. Profits from the mining operation, Ishaan explained, go to their college fund. Both siblings have dreams of becoming doctors and want to go to the University of Pennsylvania, in the case of Ishaan, and the University of New York, in the case of Aanya. And they are hoping mining Ethereum will help them fulfill their dreams of going to college.

Related Reading | Ethereum Fee Burns Clocks $100 Million, Here’s Why The Burn Is Important

As for the cost of electricity, their returns far outweigh the power bill they get for mining. For the previous month, they had to pay a total of $2,500 – $850 for their home electric bill and $1,650 for their data center electric bill. This might be a high power bill, but it pales in comparison to the $32,000 that the siblings are bringing in for their mining operation.

Their current setup consists of 14 rigs, which have 82 processors used to mine Ethereum. Then five rigs with 12 processors which the siblings used to mine Ravencoin because these processors are not powerful enough to mine Ethereum. The siblings plan to grow Flifer Technologies, which is the name of their company and have currently ordered four additional mining rigs from China with built-in processors.

Ethereum price continues to trend above $3,000 | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com
Featured image from Dallas News, chart from TradingView.com

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