Many enthusiasts in the Bitcoin community were anticipating the next halving to coincide with Saturday, April 20, 2024, but the latest data suggest it will likely occur a day earlier, on April 19. Despite a recent uptick in mining difficulty, miners have managed to maintain a high hashrate, resulting in block times dropping below the average ten-minute mark.
Fierce Competition Among Mining Pools as Bitcoin Halving Looms
As of this writing, only 519 blocks remain until the Bitcoin halving, anticipated this week at block 840,000. The forecasts now point to the event unfolding on April 19, deviating from the initial April 20 estimate. Some BTC advocates had expressed a preference for the halving to align with the culturally significant 4-20 date, known for its associations with cannabis culture. Several online counters indicate an April 20 date, relying on the ten-minute average for block intervals. However, these intervals can vary, often being faster or slower than the estimated ten minutes.
For example, the current pace of block generation averages about 9 minutes and 23 seconds. Recently, the hashrate hit a record high of 644 exahash per second (EH/s), as reported by the seven-day average from Luxor’s hashrateindex.com. Currently, the hashrate is steady at 634 EH/s, indicating that it remains high as miners continue to apply significant hashpower to discover block rewards of 6.25 BTC. Naturally, the competition is fierce, and each mining pool is quite eager to be the one to discover block 840,000.
Block 840,000 will be a highly sought-after block for any mining pool.
The three mining pools that discovered the blocks during the 2012, 2016, and 2020 halvings continue their operations today. Onchain metrics reveal that Slushpool, now known as Braiins Pool, uncovered block 210,000, reducing the reward from 50 to 25 BTC per block. A miner identified as “laughingbear” played a role in locating this block, which was mined using a Radeon HD 5800 graphics processing unit (GPU). The GPU that mined block 210,000 fetched a significant premium when sold in 2013.
On Nov. 28, 2012, the total hashrate was approximately 28 terahash per second (TH/s), with BTC trading at about $12 per coin. The halving on July 9, 2016, led to the discovery of block 420,000 by F2pool, marking a decrease in block rewards from 25 to 12.5 BTC. At that time, the hashrate stood at 1.5 exahash per second (EH/s) and BTC was trading at $650 per unit. Antpool was responsible for finding block 630,000 on May 11, 2020, which brought the block reward down from 12.5 BTC to the current 6.25.
On May 11, 2020, the hashrate hovered just above 100 exahash per second (EH/s), with BTC valued at roughly $8,600 per coin. By around April 19, 2024, miners are anticipated to receive 3.125 BTC per block, plus the transaction fees from the approved transactions within that block. The price has not only climbed significantly from one halving to the next, but the hashrate has also experienced substantial increases over the same period. As the mining community nears the mining of block 840,000, the groundwork is laid for a new era in Bitcoin’s history, marking a period when miners will gain the least amount of bitcoins to date.
What do you think about the miners racing to discover block 840,000? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.
