Is the network under attack in some way?

[BitcoinNewbie15]

Bitcoin has had a significant drop in hash rate and the daily transaction count today. Within the last 24 hours, the daily tx count has dropped by 78% going from 180,000 per day to less than 40,000. We haven't had transaction volume that low since 2014, and have not dipped under 100k per day since 2015. Currently sitting at 37k transactions in the last 24 hours. The hash rate has also had a near 66% decline and is currently at 10 exahash/s down from 30. Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas as to what may be occurring? Why have the daily transaction count and hash rate dropped simultaneously?

[achow101]

Where do you see these numbers?

Within the last 24 hours,

Therein lies your problem. Your sample size is not large enough. You can't just say "daily transaction count has dropped" from just looking at one sample. This is simply variance, some days people decide to make less transactions. Such statistics can also be effected by the software that is measuring those numbers as they can be incorrect.

[BitcoinNewbie15]

Where do you see these numbers?

Within the last 24 hours,

Therein lies your problem. Your sample size is not large enough. You can't just say "daily transaction count has dropped" from just looking at one sample. This is simply variance, some days people decide to make less transactions. Such statistics can also be effected by the software that is measuring those numbers as they can be incorrect.

Blockchain.info. They have a continuous live feed of bitcoin transaction that has taken place within the last 24 hours. every day since 2015 it has been significantly higher than today's rate. I thought it might be variance as well, but this to me seems like it is something more than just variance. I am legitimately concerned about the current state of the network, I do very so hope it may just be an error in the software they are using to report the numbers.

Edit: https://blockchain.info/charts/hash-rate and https://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions

[ranochigo]

Blockchain.info has been notorious for providing inaccurate information. You have to get your information from other sources.

The network hashrate can't be calculated accurately. The calculation is mainly done by referencing the block interval and also the difficulty. As a result, if varience is such that the network isn't producing block so frequently, the network hashrate would appear to be lower.

[BitcoinNewbie15]

Blockchain.info has been notorious for providing inaccurate information. You have to get your information from other sources.

The network hashrate can't be calculated accurately. The calculation is mainly done by referencing the block interval and also the difficulty. As a result, if varience is such that the network isn't producing block so frequently, the network hashrate would appear to be lower.

Ah very interesting. This is some very good information, I was not aware of how the hash rate was calculated, thank you! Do you have any personal recommendations for alternatives to blockchain.info?

[Xynerise]

Ah very interesting. This is some very good information, I was not aware of how the hash rate was calculated, thank you! Do you have any personal recommendations for alternatives to blockchain.info?

Bitcoinwisdom usually has correct information
Keep in mind that it's still an estimation.

[nc50lc]

In blockchain.info average transaction graph, move your mouse pointer away from the edge by a few millimeters until you reach the previous date as the hovered Time & Date, the result would be 176,563 transactions.

The latest date displayed in the graph is 04-10-2018 has not even ended in other Timezones (it's still Tuesday in some parts of the world)
That value must be a quarter to half average of the final result.

Check it again tomorrow and if still displays sub 50,000s, there's really a huge drop in activities by Bitcoin wallet/node users.

[amaclin1]

Many exchanges implemented "tx-batching".
This significantely reduces the number of transactions and saves space in blockchain.

[Caelanpelley]

Bitcoin has had a significant drop in hash rate and the daily transaction count today. Within the last 24 hours, the daily tx count has dropped by 78% going from 180,000 per day to less than 40,000. We haven't had transaction volume that low since 2014, and have not dipped under 100k per day since 2015. Currently sitting at 37k transactions in the last 24 hours. The hash rate has also had a near 66% decline and is currently at 10 exahash/s down from 30. Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas as to what may be occurring? Why have the daily transaction count and hash rate dropped simultaneously?

The fact that bitcoin is falling. Cause from? Less than a week of bitcoin reduced by 50%, a series of people lose billions. There are many reasons for falling bitcoin. That is, many virtual currency trading in Korea - where many investors are "drunk" with the collapsed virtual currency also affects the bitcoin sharply reduced.
Next, the virtual money spread through instant messenger Facebook over the past few days has impacted investor sentiment that bitcoin copper prices fell sharply.

[Wind_FURY]

Bitcoin has had a significant drop in hash rate

What significant drop in hash rate?

https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-hashrate.html

If there was a drop it would only be a very small percentage, plus the trend is hash rate has always been going up.

If you haven't read the news, Bitmain's US based mining farm will start hashing soon. So expect the difficulty to go up significantly in the next few months, not down.

[FrueGreads]

Many exchanges implemented "tx-batching".
This significantely reduces the number of transactions and saves space in blockchain.

I was about to say this as well. As far as I know, the majority of transaction are still made by exchanges, so a drop in the number of transactions is probably due to them. Of course that the inaccurate info of blockchain.info described here is probably the most reasonable reason for what you saw.

Anyway, out of curiosity, even if the date was accurate, why would this be an attack? Aren't network attacks usually the opposite? Spamming transactions so that the mempool gets full, the network gets slower and fees get higher?

[nc50lc]

-snip-
Anyway, out of curiosity, even if the date was accurate, why would this be an attack? Aren't network attacks usually the opposite? Spamming transactions so that the mempool gets full, the network gets slower and fees get higher?

The OP's query was already answered or disproved after a day from this post:

The latest date displayed in the graph is 04-10-2018 has not even ended in other Timezones (it's still Tuesday in some parts of the world)
That value must be a quarter to half average of the final result.

Check it again tomorrow and if still displays sub 50,000s, there's really a huge drop in activities by Bitcoin wallet/node users.

Check the current number of transactions (in blockchain.info) And hover your mouse pointer to the date 2018/04/11 or 04/12, you'll see that it's already updated and there's no huge drop in number of transactions.
Not blockchain.info's inaccuracy, neither (Although, displaying the partial count can make misunderstandings like this)
I requested to lock this thread (And PMed the Author) since it still causing misinformation among the (...) members.