BTC block time reaches yearly high as mining hash rate plunges amid arctic blast
US Arctic Explosion Already killed at least 22 people and temperature could soak Dangerous below freezing levels. Amid extreme weather conditions, several Bitcoin (BTC) miners have voluntarily reduced or halted operations to help the struggling power grid.
Foundry has dropped its hash rate by over 44% or nearly 30 EH/s since the storm. Foundry’s hash rate dropped to 42.63 EH/s on December 25th compared to 76.68 EH/s on December 23rd. data from the block.
Bitcoin network’s average hash rate dropped significantly from 252.98 EH/s on December 21st to 156.36 EH/s on December 24th, Glassnode data indicate.
Additionally, it was the largest one-day negative hash rate adjustment in the last six months, with the average hash rate dropping by more than 46% on December 24th.
A drop in hash rate means less mining power is being spent on mining BTC. According to BitInfoCharts, this caused Bitcoin’s average block time to surge to a yearly high of 16.18 minutes. dataBTC block time means the time it takes to mine a block.
At the same time, the average BTC block confirmation time, i.e. the time it takes to add a transaction to a mined block, more than doubled in one day. According to Blockchain.com datathe average time to confirm a BTC block jumped from 19.53 minutes on December 23rd to 46.78 minutes on December 24th.
Additionally, mining difficulty is expected to drop by 11.6% in the next adjustment cycle. Blockware Head Analyst Joe Burnett Said The next BTC mining difficulty adjustment is scheduled for January 4, 2023.
