Between a debilitating crypto winter and rising energy costs, bitcoin miners were caught between a rock and a hard place for most of 2022. But Bitcoin’s hash rate – the amount of computing power devoted to mining the cryptocurrency – is near its peak rates. Back of the envelope math shows that the amount of computing power devoted to mining bitcoin has surged by roughly … Continue reading Notes 01/03: Bitcoin Mining Consolidation
One of the constituencies affected by the slump in bitcoin prices is its mining community. A decline in bitcoin’s price makes the cryptocurrency less profitable to mine because revenues fall. Bitcoin mining is a capital-intensive business. It requires significant investments in real estate, mining rigs, electricity, and, in some instances, energy sources. The main source of revenues for miners, after making these investments, are transaction … Continue reading How Are Bitcoin Miners Handling The Crypto Winter?
Malaysia’s national electricity company Tenaga Nasional Berhard (TNB) is cracking down on Bitcoin miners who are illegally powering their mining operations by stealing electricity from the company. TNB officials raided 33 premises in Kuantan that were suspected of tampering with their electricity distribution boards. This tampering has cost RM3.2 million for the company. According to the TNB’s general manager, Bitcoin miners had been illegally using … Continue reading Malaysia’s Electric Company Cracks Down on Bitcoin Mining
After last year’s meteoric rise, 2018 promised much for bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets. And it delivered. Bitcoin continued to remain in the news, except for different reasons. Cryptocurrency markets crashed and their scandals multiplied. Crypto companies suffered growing pains. Big names in the financial services industry announced plans for crypto-related products. (They delayed those plans later). The SEC rejected bitcoin ETF proposals even as it … Continue reading Three Developments That Defined Crypto in 2018
Bitcoin may have to wait for its first IPO. Bitmain, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency mining company, generated headlines earlier this year when it filed to go public at Hong Kong Stock Exchange. But authorities at the exchange are dragging their feet over its application and are “hesitant” to approve the IPO, according to a report by online publication Coindesk. The report cites an anonymous source … Continue reading Mining Giant Bitmain’s IPO May Be In Trouble
The difficulty level for bitcoin’s mining algorithm, which climbed over the last year, fell by 15% yesterday, recording its second-steepest drop ever. Difficulty level refers to the difficulty of the cryptographic problems required to be solved by systems within bitcoin’s network to earn the cryptocurrency. It is adjusted every 2016 blocks or approximately after every two weeks, depending on the rate of production. The difficulty … Continue reading Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Level Records Second-Steepest Drop. Will Industry Consolidate?
Despite the precipitous decline in it’s price, bitcoin’s hashrate (or the amount of computing power deployed to its network) has skyrocketed. Approximately a year ago, bitcoin had 6.018 exahash of computing power dedicated to its network. As of yesterday, bitcoin’s hashrate was equal to 38.42 exahashes. (1 hash in bitcoin is equal to one round of SHA-256, the cryptocurrency’s mining algorithm and 1 exahash is … Continue reading Bitcoin’s Hashrate Has Skyrocketed In The Last Year. Why?
Last year Canada’s Québec province announced it was open for business for the crypto mining community. The thinking for Hydro Québec, the region’s utility, was that it could use surplus capacity as a nice little side business for crypto miners. By May, it had stopped approving new crypto mining projects. What went wrong? Hydro Québec has been flooded with requests from local and international miners, … Continue reading The Perils Of Cryptocurrency Mining For Québec
