Simply explained, the hash rate is the computing power put together by the miners in the Bitcoin network to validate the transaction and help secure the blockchain. The higher the value, the faster the mining device operates. Speed is highly essential in mining, as it increase the chances of solving a complicated mathematic problem can create a new block and add to the blockchain, reaping freshly minted Bitcoin as a reward.
Recently, the total hash rate of the Bitcoin network has yet again hit a new all-time high in terms of processing power and speed. This means more powerful mining equipment or more miners have joined the industry. Despite the price remains below $10,000 the total hash rate of Bitcoin network grows steadily. On March 1, according to the data on Blockchain.com, the total hash rate has ramped up to 140 EH per second. Comparing to the same time period one year ago, the back-then hash rate was only at around 40 EH/s
The freshly mined Bitcoin or ‘Block Rewards’ will halve every 210,000 blocks. Subsequently, the reward will decrease from 12.5 to 6.25 BTC per one new block by May 2020.
PlanB, a price analyst famous for his Stock-to-Flow model, has reiterated the importance of the halving event to be a tipping point for hash rate, difficulty rate, and the price of Bitcoin.
Moreover, U.Today has presented the report recently conducted by Alex De Vries, an on-chain data researcher and the founder of cryptocurrency magazine, has claimed that more than 98% of the Bitcoin mining rigs will be rendered obsolete after the halving in May. This will force miners who wish to stay in the business to come up with the newer generation mining devices.
The increase in the hash rate before the halving can reflect that the miners are confident that their devices will continue to be profitable even after the block reward gets cut in half. Some speculate that miners are looking to horde as much Bitcoin as possible before it becomes nearly impossible to mine profitably and forced them to turn off their machines.
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