Bitcoin mining difficulty has reached a new all-time high of 134.7 trillion, surpassing the previous record set in August, despite earlier expectations of a decrease in network difficulty.
According to CryptoQuant, the Bitcoin hashrate, a measure of the total number of hashes per second from all miners, has decreased to 967 billion hashes per second. This represents a decline from the all-time high of over 1 trillion hashes per second recorded on August 4.
The rising difficulty has heightened the competitive landscape for large mining firms, compressing their profit margins. The increasing computing power required to mine blocks has also raised concerns about the centralization of Bitcoin mining. As costs continue to escalate, there are fears that large corporations and mining pools may dominate the industry.
Despite the growing influence of large mining entities, individual or “solo” miners are still successfully mining blocks and claiming the block reward, currently valued at 3.125 BTC, or over $344,000.
In recent months, solo miners have demonstrated their continued viability. In July and August, three solo miners added blocks to the Bitcoin ledger and claimed the block reward. On July 3, one miner added block 903,883, earning nearly $350,000, including block subsidy rewards and priority fees. Another solo miner added block 907,283 on July 26, claiming over $373,000 in rewards based on Bitcoin prices at the time. On August 17, a third solo miner mined block 910,440, securing $373,000 in block subsidy rewards and network fees.
