Bitcoin hashrate crashed by 25% in a few hours after the weather in China took a turn for the worse. According to data from CoinWarz, BTC hashrate dropped by 23.2% from 135 exahashes per second to just 103.9 EH/s. The anticipated power outages were first reported on Wednesday with miners predicting that up to 70% of the country’s Bitcoin mining rigs may be affected outside of the Sichuan region, where hydroelectricity is more popular than elsewhere.
Bitcoin hashrate is the amount of computing power used to mine bitcoin. It’s measured in hashes per second, and a higher hashrate means more miners are able to compete for the same reward.
Bitcoin’s hashrate has been steadily increasing over time, but it can also suddenly drop as miners switch off their machines when things get too hot for them. This happened on Sunday when China experienced freezing temperatures as part of its cold snap, leading some people to believe that bitcoin mining might be at risk from climate change.
The latest crash took place after an unusually warm spell in parts of China caused temperatures there to rise above those seen during previous winters—and with no end in sight yet, things may get even hotter before they get better again!
Bitcoin Hashrate Looks For Redemption
The recent hashrate freeze caused bitcoin miners to temporarily cease operation, but the network’s hashrate has bounced back to more than 124 EH/s at press time.
Hashrate is a measurement of the processing power of the bitcoin network. It represents how many attempts are made every second to find a new block through brute-force guessing. As such, it is an important indicator for both miners and users of bitcoin alike as it determines how long it takes for transactions to be confirmed on average and affects transaction fees as well.
The recent drop in hashrate (from around 134 EH/s) was caused by some miners halting operations due to “difficulty adjustments” caused by “block withholding attacks” — when miners deliberately withhold blocks from other parties so they can mine them themselves instead. This process lowers difficulty by removing what would otherwise be valid blocks from being counted towards difficulty calculation, thereby keeping their own mining operations profitable despite falling profitability overall due to increasing energy costs and decreased price per BTC.
