Over the past few weeks, a lot of people have been paying close attention to the overall hashrate pointed at the Bitcoin network. With BitFury deploying their new data center in Georgia, the network hashrate spiked to unseen heights. Now that the price has dropped off by a fair bit, the hashpower is declining as well. No reason to panic yet, although 200 petahash has suddenly gone missing.
Also read: Bitcoin Ecosystem Starts To Recover As People See How Certain Individuals Are Expendable
A Sudden Drop In Bitcoin Hashpower
Whenever the Bitcoin hashrate drops all of a sudden, there is hardly ever a reason to panic. After all, when new mining hardware is deployed on the network, it always takes a few days until the charts pick up on its average hashpower, rather than its peak performance.
Furthermore, it is important to keep in mind a large portion of the miners are running the hardware at home, and only mine when it is profitable to do so. Considering how electricity costs will hardly ever get cheaper for everyday consumers, a falling Bitcoin price can be reason enough to turn off their miners and wait for a better opportunity.
That being said, the Bitcoin hashpower charts have been fluctuating quite a bit over the past month, without any proper indication as to why this is happening. With numbers ranging anywhere from 600 petahash to just over 900, something seems to be going on regarding people turning on and shutting off miners at regular intervals.
At the same time, it also depends on which chart interval one looks at. When staring at the charts on a monthly basis, things seem to go up and down by quite the margin. But looking at the same charts from the standpoint of a seven-day average, the Bitcoin network hashrate seems to be growing week by week, except right now.
Bitcoin’s mining scene has always been rather volatile regarding numbers, simply because the process is directly influenced by the price per BTC. Even for companies who have access to cheaper electricity resources, a falling Bitcoin price is not doing anyone any favors. However, the Bitcoin price seems to hold its own for now, as people are looking towards the future with a more optimistic view.
One thing to keep in mind is how, even though the numbers might be dropping off slightly, there is no reason to panic just yet. Bitcoin transactions are processed at the normal speed as before, and there is still plenty of hashpower pointed towards finding new blocks and confirming transfers. All in all, things are looking stable in the Bitcoin world yet again.
Source: Blockchain.info
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