A lot of things have changed for Bitcoin as of late. The past few days have been incredibly difficult on various fronts. Bitcoin Cash has made a successful impact in this regard. Now that the altcoin’s EDA is gone, the hashrate has dropped like a brick. The main Bitcoin network has 90% of the global hashrate once again. It is a positive sign for the network, although things may still change in the days to come.
It was to be expected the BCH hard fork would cause some issues for the network. While there have been no major issues, the hashrate is dropping pretty quickly. It is far more profitable to mine BTC right now, that much is certain. How this situation will evolve in the coming days, remains to be seen. With over 10.3 exahashes per second pointing to the main chain, things look pretty solid. The altcoin hash under 1 exahash, which is a lot lower compared to the 6 and more it has just two days ago.
Hashrate Swings in Favor of Bitcoin
Speaking of mining profitability, the difference is not as big as one would expect. Mining Bitcoin is only 20.5% more profitable. It is still worth pointing hashpower to this chain over BCH at this rate. For those with less powerful hardware, the altcoin is worth considering. It runs at 18% of the Bitcoin difficulty right now. Even then, it is not succeeding in making a big impact for an extended period of time. Earlier this week BCH was nearly 300% more profitable to mine.
With this new hard fork for Bitcoin Cash, such numbers may not return anytime soon. It is good to see a new mining difficulty algorithm at work, though. So far, it hasn’t had a negative impact on the network. More specifically, the time between blocks is growing longer. An average of 3 blocks per hour is discovered on the network right now. That isn’t exactly great, but it is to be expected. As the hashrate falls further, these delays will only grow worse. An interesting situation to keep an eye on.
It is evident this situation is of great interest. Without enough miners, the Bitcoin network struggled severely over the weekend. Things are now back in order, as they should be. With enough hashpower, the mempool will clear out in no time, unless another spam attack occurs. This latter option remains a possibility, as it has happened multiple times in the past. The hashpower dictates the network, that much is evident. We may see some big changes in the coming days and weeks, though. For now, everything seems to work out fine for Bitcoin.
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