Bitcoin Mining Industry Is Booming as Difficulty Soars 14% to New High

Mining difficulty on the Bitcoin (BTC) network has taken its steepest upturn in almost a year, data from major Chinese mining pool BTC.com reveals.

On July 9, difficulty surged by over 14% to hit 9.06 trillion (9.06 T), at an average hash rate of 64.85 EH/s — a new all-time-high in the network’s history.

The last time the network posted such a sharp increase in block producing difficulty was back in late July 2018, when it soared almost 15% over a 2,016 block interval. 

At that time, however, average hash rate was at 42.59 EH/s and absolute difficulty was at a significantly lower 5.95 T.

As previously reported, Bitcoin’s hashing difficulty algorithm is designed to adjust every 2,016 blocks — roughly two weeks — to maintain a consistent ~10-minute block verification time. 

Typically, when the network sees a low level of participating mining power, difficulty will tumble — while in periods of intense network participation, it rises, working as a counterbalancing…