Bitcoin mining difficulty breaks above 80 trillion for first time

The Bitcoin mining difficulty, the measure of how hard it is to solve the mathematical problem associated with a block, passed 80 trillion on Friday. 

The hash rate for the network, which meters the total computational power dedicated by miners, rose to 562.81 EH/s with the mining difficulty reaching 81.73 trillion — a new all-time high, according to the blockchain explorer BTC.com. With its consistent increase since January 2023, bitcoin mining difficulty is on a course to reach 100 trillion in the coming months.

With Bitcoin's proof-of-work consensus mechanism, mining difficulty gauges the complexity of adding a new block to the blockchain. The higher the difficulty, the more computational power and energy a miner needs to find the right hash for the new block. For the Bitcoin network, the difficulty level has more than doubled in the past 12 months. 

Bitcoin's price hit $51,783.74 at 10:45 a.m. ET on Feb. 16. The last time bitcoin's price was that high was in November 2021, according to The Block's Price Page. 

Bitcoin halving 

Bitcoin's mining rewards will be cut in half in late April in what's known as the 'Bitcoin Halving.' Bitcoin's programmers baked the reduction into the token's structure roughly every four years to fight inflation. The last time bitcoin's mining reward halved was in May 2020.

Come the next halving, bitcoin's rewards will fall to 3.125 BTC from 6.25 BTC. The halving may cause a reduction in hash rate as inefficient miners struggle to break even from their mining rewards and exit. A lower hash rate is expected to lead to a decreased bitcoin mining difficulty as the network attempts to maintain consistent block production every 10 minutes.