The complexity of mining Bitcoin increased for the first time since October 2018

As a result of the next recalculation of the complexity of mining Bitcoin on the night of January 1, this figure increased by 10%. This is the first increase in complexity since October 2018.

The complexity of mining is a parameter of the blockchain network, which shows how difficult it is to perform a mathematical calculation to find a new unit and, accordingly, to receive an award for it.

So, according to Bitcoin Wisdom, as a result of the new recalculation, the complexity increased by 10%

At the same time, over the past few days, bitcoin hash has grown slightly and hashrate – the total computing power of mining equipment involved in the process of cryptocurrency mining.

In total, in December 2018, bitcoin hash rate increased by about 35%, making 43,291,797 TH / s on the last day of the year. Nevertheless, these figures are still quite far from the peak figures of August 2018 – 61 866 256 TH / s.

Recall that the complexity of mining Bitcoin during 2018 fell five times, while since November it has happened three times in a row. The largest such decrease – by more than 15% – was observed at the beginning of December. Two weeks later, this figure fell another 10%.

Meanwhile, the new year cryptocurrency market meets a slight decrease in quotations. So, as of 18:30 UTC, the weighted average rate of Bitcoin, falling by 1.72% over the day, was $ 3,723.87. XRP fell by about 1% and was priced at $ 0.353780, down by 1.61% in the price of ETH – at the time of publication its weighted average rate was $ 134.38. The total market capitalization is 125.7 billion (Bitcoin – 51.7%).

We also recall that the Wall Street Journal cryptocurrency expert Paul Vigna came to the conclusion that, against the background of the fall in world indices, Bitcoin became more closely correlated with gold.