BTC hashrate dropped from 136 THs to 95 THs
Block difficulty just adjusted (26/3/2020) at block 622944
Latest block mined is 622986
Next difficulty adjustment is at 624960
Average block time for the last 2016 blocks was 11 minutes 54 secs
Current time to mine a block have reached 20 minutes. This loss of hashrate is serious and could result in the chain grinding to a halt.
What cause the loss of hashrate?
Economics! For some miners it has become unprofitable to mine and they are switching off their machines. All machines of the S9 generation will be unprofitable. The current economic climate and lock downs all over the world must also be a factor. I suppose it would be hard to convince the police that you have to go to work because bitcoin mining is an essential service.
Why is the price still holding?
There was a huge price collapse from $8000 to $5000 on 13 March and since then it has recovered to just over $6000. However it has been a phenomenon of selling the top. Whales are exiting!!
BCH and BSV
Most institutional investors would move out of crypto entirely until the scene settles. BCH and BSV do not suffer from hashrate gyrations because blocks adjust dynamically. However both will be undergoing halving in the next 14 days. The block subsidy will halve from 12.5 to 6.25. This is a 50% reduction in revenue if the price stays the same.
What will become obvious is that on BSV the income from transaction fees is increasing even reaching 50 coins yesterday. After halving only 900 coins will be mined per day. If this trend continues miners will start mining BSV as it will be much more profitable than mining BCH after the halving.
BTC is in trouble. It may finally succumb to the dreaded Chain Death Spiral.
