The hash power of the Bitcoin (BTC) network has jumped by around 30% over the past 24 hours, which if sustained, suggests a major difficulty adjustment may soon be incoming.
It has been reported that Bitcoin’s hash rate sits at 157.5 exahashes per second (EX/s) after briefly pushing above 160 EH/s. As of this writing, BTC hash power has increased by 42% in two days.
However, the spike follows a sharp decline in hash power in late October, which many analysts attributed to the end of the rainy season in the Chinese mining hub of Sichuan.
Since Nov. 8, Bitcoin’s hash rate has jumped from 111 EX/s to 157.5, sparking speculation that China’s miners have completed their annual migration from Sichuan https://t.co/Sbz2JyQqE4 — Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) November 10, 2020
The report said that the province’s abundant and cheap hydroelectric power is estimated to attract around 80% of Chinese miners during the wet season.
In December, last year, CoinShares estimated that Sichuan accounted for 54% of global mining activity.
Jason Deane, the analyst at Quantum Economics, said that the sudden increase in Bitcoin hash power could be a sign that many Chinese miners have completed their migration from Sichuan and restored operations in other local mining hubs such as Xinjian and Inner Mongolia.
Whoa! big jump in #bitcoin hash rate over last 10 hours (+29.7% trough to peak) Large number of machines just came online somewhere, relocated Sichuan region miners possibly? pic.twitter.com/UKahgQ37Tm — Jason Deane (@JasonADeane) November 9, 2020
It has been analyzed that the sudden spike in mining activity suggests the network is likely to produce another significant difficulty adjustment.
Thus, a major upward adjustment would come at the chagrin of non-Chinese miners who have been enjoying boosted profits after October’s apparent migration from Sichuan resulted in a 16% negative difficulty adjustment, the second-largest downwards adjustment in Bitcoin’s history.
Source: Cointelegraph