why does the hashrate sometimes drop so drastically?

[paulie_w]

kind of amazed at how low it is right now, looking at bitcoincharts.

[kokojie]

GPU mining has become unprofitable for anyone that has to pay normal electricity rate. So a lot of casual miners probably stopped mining. Once the price reach $20 or so, they will start again.

[cypherdoc]

also i bet alot of miners are liquidating their gpu's in prep for asic's

[mccorvic]

Just a sign that we're moving from the "print your own money!" phase to "actual economy" phase of bitcoin.

But do expect a huge jump in hashrate when/if ASIC come out.