Chain News Today TheBitTimes.com

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty is at all-time highs – and with it, the difficulty of turning a profit. Revenues from the computer rigs that secure the world’s most valuable blockchain are at 12-month lows. Miners’ use of electricity – including its financial cost and environmental impact – is at an all-time high. Worse, this top expense of mining companies is accelerating. Since the beginning of 2023, Bitcoin’s hashrate increased 91% from 256 exahashes per second to a record 746 exahashes per second this month. A smoothed trend line of hashrate, which varies considerably day-to-day, trends up-and-to-the-right along a rarely interrupted vector. Read more: Tether-owned Northern Data accused of fraud by former execs Earlier this year, the hard-coded reward for solving Bitcoin’s computational puzzle halved from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC per block of transactions. That instantly reduced miners’ revenue – which is at a 12-month low. Making matters worse, Bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment adjusts ...

For years, rumors have circulated that Bitcoin’s largest mining machine manufacturer has secretly centralized a majority of Bitcoin’s hash power. The theory is down to more than a simple observation of the logo stamped on most mining cases. No, skeptics think that Bitmain’s pool itself — not just its machines — secretly creates the vast majority of blocks that are added to Bitcoin’s ledger. A sleuth found a clue in Antpool’s block template: A manually prioritized transaction immediately after the 6.25 BTC block reward or ‘coinbase’ transaction. This new research by pseudonymous Bitcoin developer 0xb10c seemingly confirms long-rumored practices by Antpool hiding its massive operation under the names of ostensibly independent pools. In short, it warns that despite tens of thousands of decentralized nodes, Bitcoin might actually be quite centralized from a mining perspective. One template and custodian for supposedly independent pools Specifically, 0xb10c detected that B...

The key to survival for Bitcoin miners boils down to the delicate balance between the revenue and the operating cash flow. Bitcoin (BTC) visiting the $20,000 range after one and a half years made Mining — the most important job of the ecosystem — a costly affair. However, if history were to repeat itself, BTC investors may witness another epic bull run that previously helped Bitcoin reach an all-time high of $69,000. Changes in Bitcoin prices directly impact the miners’ income, who earn fixed block rewards and transaction fees in BTC for running their mining operations. In June 2022, the total mining revenue dipped below the $20 million range, with Blockchain.com data recording the lowest dip of $14.401 million on June 17. Total miners revenue over time. Source: blockchain.com As shown above, the recent dip in Bitcoin mining revenue was last seen one year back when the total value tanked to $13.065 million on June 27, 2021 — back when BTC traded at roughly $34,000. What followed afte...

Despite the competition between the two sectors, Hive Digital Technologies CEO Aydin Kilic said that blockchain and AI can work to the benefit of each other. Crypto mining firm Hive Blockchain sent a signal to the tech industry when it dropped “ blockchain ” from its namesake in July, opting to call itself Hive Digital Technologies and reflect its artificial intelligence foray. The decision is part of a wider movement from crypto miner s to pivot outside of digital currency mining, amid depressed crypto prices. January saw crypto mining firm Riot Blockchain rebrand to Riot Platforms while June saw crypto miner Applied Digital announce a $460 million deal to host AI cloud computing in its data center. Since ETH mining ended in September 2022, $HIVE has been transforming its fleet of 38,000 Nvidia GPUs from miner s into cloud infrastructure, marking the next stage of our evolution into a diversified data center operator. Read the latest HIVE Newsletter: https://t.co/raHqwMMalv pic.twit...

Stablecoin operator Tether is building specialized Bitcoin mining software aimed at using data analytics to optimize mining operations and boost production, CTO Paolo Ardoino says. Stablecoin issuer Tether (USDT) is building specialized software to optimize Bitcoin mining and renewable energy operating using data analytics, following recent investment endeavors into both categories. In conversation with Cointelegraph, Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino expanded upon details of its in-development mining software which aims to deliver improved analytics and performance of mining sites. Related: Tether’s game plan in El Salvador: Why invest in Volcano Energy? Moria, named after the dwarven mining kingdom from The Lord of the Rings trilogy, is being built by Ardoino and a team of developers. Tether's CTO had previously shared details of the software in a recent social media post. Tether is investing in renewable energy production (with excess reserves / profits) and sustainable #bitcoin mini...

Bitcoin mining firm Hut8 continues to relocate miners from idle North Bay site as demand for AI and high power computing drives new demand. North American mining firm Hut8 is seeing new demand for AI and high performance computing as it looks to re-energize some 6,400 rigs being moved from its inoperative North Bay site in Ontario. As previously reported, Hut8 is in an ongoing legal battle with its third party energy supplier Validus Power over alleged failure to meet contractual obligations. Operations at the facility have been suspended since Nov. 2022. Hut8 declined to comment on proceedings of the court case in correspondence with Cointelegraph but confirmed that some 6,400 miners are being moved to Texas as the company looks to bring its idle equipment back online. The firm expects this specific batch of miners to be operational by the end of July 2023, providing 600 PH/s of operational capacity which will take Hut8’s total installed hashrate up to 3.2 EH/s. A three month hosti...

An increase in Bitcoin trading volume and positive on-chain data appear to be the primary forces behind BTC’s newfound strength. The beginning of 2023 has provided Bitcoin (BTC) with bullish indicators and the rally to a year-to-date high at $21,647 has crypto traders hopeful that the worst part of the bear market has ended. The surge effect of BTC’s bullish price action is also carrying over to Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin mining stocks. The reduction in Bitcoin Fear and Greed index to neutral is possibly driven by volume increases, Bitcoin on-chain data and BTC price decoupling from equities markets. While not all analysts believe a market bottom is in, let’s dive into the data. Trading volume and volatility return Bitcoin’s price spike has been accompanied by massive growth in trading volume. Over the last week, BTC volume has more than doubled, reaching $10.8 billion, a 114% increase over 7-days. Bitcoin trading volume. Source: Arcane Research Increased trading typically correlates to...