Bitcoin will reduce the block generation time to about 10 minutes in the next difficulty adjustment.
Written by: Alex Thorn, Head of Enterprise Scope Research, Galaxy Digital Translation: Lu Jiangfei
The day before yesterday, June 27, 2021, was the slowest day of Bitcoin block generation in the past ten years (since 2010). The average block time reached 23 minutes, while the previous average block time was basically Maintain it for about 10 minutes. Recently, China’s Sichuan and other provinces have halted Bitcoin mining. It can be said that this is the most destructive action the Bitcoin network has ever faced. But the Bitcoin network has not been defeated, but is gradually adapting to market changes, and the future will become more and more prosperous.
The following table shows the 25 days in which Bitcoin’s average block generation time was the slowest since 2010. We did not include the data in 2009 because almost no one knew about the existence of Bitcoin at that time, and because Bitcoin was just born at that time , There were many days in the year when the block time was very long.
Block time is the time interval for miners to discover and add blocks on the blockchain. Bitcoin tries to maintain the block time within a relatively stable range, namely: 1 block every 10 minutes. After every 2016 blocks, Bitcoin will adjust the mining difficulty according to the network conditions, either to make mining easier or harder:
- If the computing power increases and it takes less than 10 minutes to mine a Bitcoin block (that is, the mining of 2016 blocks can be completed in less than 2 weeks), then the Bitcoin network will subsequently increase the difficulty of mining;
- If the computing power drops and it takes more than 10 minutes to mine a Bitcoin block, the Bitcoin network will subsequently reduce the difficulty of mining.
As Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Yunnan, Xinjiang and other provinces have begun to suspend Bitcoin mining activities, Bitcoin computing power is expected to continue to decline. Within 5-6 days, we may see a significant decrease in the difficulty of mining. This adjustment will restore the block generation time to an average level of about 10 minutes. However, before the difficulty of Bitcoin mining is adjusted, the network block time will still be very slow.
Frankly speaking, mining difficulty adjustment is one of Bitcoin’s “most elegant” functions. It not only ensures that the network can absorb the impact of a short-term drop in computing power, but also effectively implements Bitcoin’s monetary policy. This is because of mining The difficulty ensures that Bitcoin blocks must appear as planned, so the newly minted BTC will also appear as planned.
Once the difficulty of Bitcoin mining is adjusted, the Bitcoin miners who are still on the network will gain more market share, and then will be able to make more profits. It is expected that on Friday, we will see the largest difficulty (downward) adjustment in Bitcoin history, but before that, it may take longer for us to wait until Bitcoin is released.
For the Bitcoin network, according to the data on the chain, the suspension of Bitcoin mining activities in Sichuan and other provinces did bring great damage. However, even under such a large-scale industry shock, despite the slowdown in network block production, we have found that Bitcoin has actually shown great resilience and vitality.
Some people think that this may be regarded as a “state attack” that Bitcoin encountered, but from the current point of view, the Bitcoin network has responded very well. Looking at human history, what products can continue to operate after the “50% industry basis” is misplaced? It seems that only Bitcoin is capable of resisting interference of this scale.
On the other hand, many Bitcoin miners have begun to pack their bags and move their mining machines to other regions. It is expected that new mining bases will be spread in several neighboring countries and North America, where there are abundant low-cost energy sources, and the local market is digging for Bitcoin. Mine is also very interested.
In the long run, it is not a good thing for Bitcoin to concentrate computing power in a single jurisdiction. We hope to see Bitcoin mining becoming more and more decentralized. Only by achieving this goal can we truly control our destiny. Own hands.
Source link: twitter.com
Disclaimer: As a blockchain information platform, the articles published on this site only represent the author’s personal views, and have nothing to do with the position of ChainNews. The information, opinions, etc. in the article are for reference only, and are not intended as or regarded as actual investment advice.
