Bitcoin Hash Rate Rapidly Rising Despite Price

[Hydrogen]

Despite Bitcoin’s 2018 price slump, the dominant cryptocurrency’s hash rate continues to surge at an astonishing pace. Although the value of Bitcoin has decreased by 53% since January 1st, 2018, the hash rate has increased 155% in the same time period.

The continued growth in hash power demonstrates a strong, continued belief in Bitcoin by miners worldwide and may foreshadow a hidden bullish trend.

While both Bitcoin’s price(green) and Bitcoin’s hash rate(blue) grew in 2017, the hash rate has continued to grow in 2018 while the price has dropped.

Hash Rate Explained
In simple terms, mining is the process of running complex calculations in search of a specific number. In a race to find the number first, mining hardware is used to run through as many calculations possible to secure the block reward, currently at 12.5 BTC per block.

The current hash rate of BTC is 38 EH/s which is 38,000,000,000,000,000,000 h/s or 38 billion trillion hashes per second.
Each calculation attempt to solve the computation is known as a “hash” and the “hash rate” is computed in hashes per second(h/s).

ASICs (application specific integrated circuits) have become the sole mining hardware used to mine Bitcoin due to their increased hash rate ability and higher energy efficiency. One ASIC has a mining power of approximately 12 tera-hashes per second. For comparison, in 2013, the total hash rate of the Bitcoin network on April 29, 2013, was 79.02 Th/s.

Growing Number of Miners
The hash rate of Bitcoin continues to hike at a rapid pace, indicating a growing number of Bitcoin miners. So far in 2018,  it has grown 155%, from 15.04 Eh/s to 38.43 Eh/s.

One possible explanation for the increase in hash rate is Bitcoin’s value. Although Bitcoin has lost a lot of value in 2018, the block reward of 12.5 Bitcoin is still worth over $78,000 today. At Bitcoin’s peak, a single block was worth almost a quarter million dollars and miners may view the current market as a way to accumulate more Bitcoin at lower prices.

Another possibility explaining the increase in hash rate could be upcoming Bitcoin “halvening,” estimated to occur around May 25, 2020. With the reward set to decrease from 12.5 BTC per block to 6.25 per block, miners may be trying to accumulate as much Bitcoin possible, before difficulty further increases and rewards decrease. The price of BTC at the time of the last two halvenings were $660 and $12 in 2016 and 2012, respectively.

One interesting thing to note in the increase of hash rate is the contribution of hash power outside of the world’s biggest mining pools. This is beneficial to the Bitcoin network as it makes the power of mining less concentrated.

Overall, it is a positive sign that miners continue to demonstrate their support for Bitcoin through the increasing growth of hash rate. Instead of abandoning Bitcoin to mine other cryptocurrencies, they persist and strengthen the Bitcoin network.

It will certainly be interesting to see if the conviction of miners is ultimately worthwhile and Bitcoin makes the run that bulls anxiously await.

https://cryptoslate.com/bitcoin-hash-rate-rapidly-growing-despite-price/

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The source article has graphs and tables which better illustrate some of its points.

Question: Does bitcoin's hash rate rising rapidly mean the price of bitcoin should rise as well via correlation?  

I can't remember this topic being brought up, before. Its difficult to find accurate metrics and statistics on crypto currencies due to much of the critical data being based on polls rather than real world numbers. It would seem that bitcoin's hash rate and user base are both growing at a good pace while the price is declining under circumstances where it should be increasing under heightened demand.

What we could have here are indications of market manipulation being utilized in an effort to push bitcoin's price down in a scenario where economic and market fundamentals dictate the price of bitcoin should be appreciating in value.

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[stompix]

It's pretty simple, a question of how much hashrate you can produce with 1800BTC worth of electricity.

That hasrate is equivalent to around 3 million S9 mining, each burning 1.5$ of electricity if we take 0.05c/kwh, it means roughly 4.5 million$ in electricity costs compared to a reward of roughly 10.8 million$ (excluding fees).

So there is still room for profit, and even more room for more miners.
And it won't push prices in any direction.

[Deubila]

It's pretty simple, a question of how much hashrate you can produce with 1800BTC worth of electricity.

That hasrate is equivalent to around 3 million S9 mining, each burning 1.5$ of electricity if we take 0.05c/kwh, it means roughly 4.5 million$ in electricity costs compared to a reward of roughly 10.8 million$ (excluding fees).

So there is still room for profit, and even more room for more miners.
And it won't push prices in any direction.

Every effort is meaningless when it comes to reducing bitcoin prices. By the time bicoin or electronic money has been accepted by the community. Especially it has a common economic influence linked together. It will be very difficult to work on them, stability and sustainability remain good.

[AniviaBtc]

It's pretty simple, a question of how much hashrate you can produce with 1800BTC worth of electricity.

That hasrate is equivalent to around 3 million S9 mining, each burning 1.5$ of electricity if we take 0.05c/kwh, it means roughly 4.5 million$ in electricity costs compared to a reward of roughly 10.8 million$ (excluding fees).

So there is still room for profit, and even more room for more miners.
And it won't push prices in any direction.

Every effort is meaningless when it comes to reducing bitcoin prices. By the time bicoin or electronic money has been accepted by the community. Especially it has a common economic influence linked together. It will be very difficult to work on them, stability and sustainability remain good.
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  This is a bit Technical on the rate computation on Bitcoin miners, anyway, we can view these also as one Expert Analysis Speculation on the future market, but if we base our analysis on the simple but basic, it is the Market Volatility, market price value goes up and down at any given time during the trading period, market correct itself after the market glitz, it is dependent on the volume of investment put in by the investors for Bitcoin, still Bitcoin remain strong and stable in the market.

[dothebeats]

A huge room for profit is still there for miners, and given that most mining companies align the prices of their machines with the current price, it's not surprising that most operators are stacking up their investments knowing that bitcoin can still go nuts at any given point. People who say 'mining is dead' basically don't understand the economy of the mining scene. Of course, miners won't let the price reach a certain level wherein profitability is no longer possible. They control the flow of new coins, and if anything they have one of the largest stakes in this whole industry. It's normal that they expand their operations since the prices are low and it is their leverage since the machines are also cheap. A clever move, I'd say.