Even with bitcoin holding at a stable value after a sharp drop, mining activity shows signs of having intensified in September. That’s because the difficulty increased by 9.26%, the highest rate recorded since January of this year, according to data from BTC.com, which does this monitoring.
One of the explanations is that miners in North America start ramping up production before the region’s coldest months of the year, which can raise the cost of energy.
In addition, it is worth explaining that the activity faces a certain seasonality. In July, one of the hottest months in the Northern Hemisphere, many miners stopped mining because the platforms produce too much heat during their operations, which means that the companies need even more energy to ensure cooling.
Now, with the reactivation of the platforms, the difficulty has increased again. Another point is that more efficient hardware has gone into operation, while the older equipment has been relocated to regions where the energy cost is lower or where there are tax incentives.
What is the mining difficulty adjustment?
Bitcoin mining difficulty adjustments take place automatically every 2,016 blocks. Approximately every two weeks, in sync with the network hash rate, each block is mined in about 10 minutes.
This difficulty increases as the network’s computing power increases, a rate known as the hash rate. In other words, as more computing power is connected to the network, the activity becomes more difficult. On the other hand, as computing power reduces in the network, the difficulty drops.
