Bitcoin difficulty fell almost 28% this Saturday

The complexity or difficulty of the Blockchain network to mine Bitcoin, has experienced the biggest drop in its history this Saturday. This is a scenario that has been expected since the massive disconnections of miners in China began. It should be remembered that that country banned business within its borders.

Beijing’s punitive measures against cryptocurrencies, spread to 4 provinces that constituted 60% of Bitcoin’s hashrate. These are the regions of Inner Mongolia, Yunnan, Sichuan and Xinjiang. Almost immediately, the miners complied with the order of the authorities and began the process of dismantling their farms.

The most important aspect that jumps to the eye with the reduction of the difficulty, are the advantages that active miners will enjoy. There will now be less competition from miners when it comes to looking for blocks. Transaction fees will also increase. Both cases result in increased revenues for those miners who remain active in the midst of this disconnection process.

Will the next adjustment to mine Bitcoin be up or down again?

The automatic adjustment of the difficulty of the Blockchain network to mine Bitcoin, is one of the brightest features of the pioneer cryptocurrency. The increase or decrease of hash power, were foreseen by Satoshi Nakamoto at the time of creating Bitcoin. This consists of maintaining the average pace of the mining process over time.

When it is stressed that Bitcoin mining will exist until the year 2140, this is only possible thanks to the difficulty adjustment tool. It should be noted, on the other hand, that the fall of hashrate, leads directly to the decrease of difficulty. In that regard, massive disconnections are expected to continue and Bitcoin’s computing power drops further.

At the same time, reconnections will take time, which will be a slow and painful process. All this indicates that the next adjustment of the difficulty to mine Bitcoin, planned for about two weeks from now, will also be bearish.

According to the portal Btc.com, the difficulty of the network will drop from 14Q to 10Q in a 28.47% drop additional to the 28% that occurred this Saturday. In other words, the network will suffer depopulation that would bring it to the level of difficulty it had in September 2019.

How is the adjustment process?

The adjustment of the difficulty of the Blockchain network to mine Bitcoin is, as already highlighted, one of the most brilliant ideas of the creation of this cryptocurrency. It consists of maintaining the approximate pace of 10 minutes for each block of transactions processed.

In this way, the adjustment is made more or less according to the level of competence to process blocks. In more precise words, when a large number of miners join the network, the resolution of mathematical problems is faster. This is due to the collaboration of the miners, which streamlines the process. Thus, each block is mined, no longer in 10, but, for example, in 6 minutes.

Upon detecting the change, the network automatically adjusts, increasing the difficulty of mathematical block encryption problems. By making resolution more difficult, the growing number of miners are able to process blocks again in 10 minutes.

This process works exactly the opposite way. When a significant number of miners retire, the blocks instead of 10, are mined, for example, in 14 minutes. The network, in that sense, lowers the difficulty of mathematical puzzles so that the few miners can maintain the processing rate of 10 minutes per block.

So you can calculate with a precise date the time of the adjustments, of the halvings or even, when the last Bitcoin will be mined. It should be noted that adjustments occur every 2,016 blocks, which in time equals approximately two weeks.