0.2 Zettahash: Bitcoin's Hashrate Taps New Lifetime High, Mining Difficulty Nears ATH

Bitcoin Nov 26, 2022 0 84 Add to Reading List

Bitcoin’s hashrate tapped a lifetime high on the first day of 2022 reaching 209.39 exahash per second (EH/s). During the last 12 months, Bitcoin’s hashrate has increased by 47.92% from the 141.55 EH/s recorded on January 3, 2021.

Bitcoin’s Hashpower Reaches a New Milestone

The processing power and security dedicated to the Bitcoin (BTC) network has never been higher, and the network tapped a milestone in 2022. According to the one-year hashrate chart hosted on coinwarz.com, BTC’s hashrate tapped a high of 209.39 EH/s on January 1, 2022. At the time of writing, the hashrate is still coasting along the two hundred three quintillion hashes per second (H/s) zone, and 30-day statistics indicate the network briefly tapped 224.32 EH/s on Saturday.

Bitcoin’s hashrate tapped an all-time high on January 1, 2022. 200 exahash per second (EH/s) or 200,000 petahash per second (PH/s) equates to 0.2 zettahash per second (ZH/s).

Bitcoin.com News recently reported on the BTC network reaching 194.95 EH/s not too long ago on December 8, 2021. It’s also worth noting that the Ethereum (ETH) network also reached an all-time high tapping 1 petahash per second (PH/s).

On the third day of 2021, BTC’s hashrate was around 141.55 EH/s.

On December 22, 2021, the Ethereum network reached 1.0122 PH/s and today’s metrics show ETH’s hashrate is still above the 1 PH/s on Sunday. On January 3, 2021, Bitcoin’s hashrate was 141.55 EH/s or 47.92% lower than today’s BTC hashpower statistics.

Hashrate Climbs Over 200% Since China’s Bitcoin Mining Crackdown, Mining Difficulty Nears All-Time High

Moreover, on June 28, 2021, China’s crackdown against BTC miners caused the hashrate to plummet to 69.11 EH/s. The network’s hashrate has grown 202.98% since that day as a great majority of mining operations relocated to other countries. At the time of writing, the largest bitcoin mining pool is Foundry USA with 19.45% of the global hashpower or 34.79 EH/s. The second-largest mining pool in terms of global hashrate is Antpool with 16.91% of the hashrate or 30.25 EH/s.

There’s only 11 known mining pools mining BTC today and 3.81% of the global hashrate stems from unknown hash or stealth miners. BTC miners have faced two bitcoin mining difficulty increases during the last two epochs. On December 11, the difficulty jumped 8.33% and on the 25th of December, it increased by 0.32%. Bitcoin’s next mining difficulty change will bring it awfully close to the difficulty’s all-time high at 25 trillion. In just over five days, the difficulty is expected to increase by 2.90% to 24.98 trillion.