The difficulty of mining Bitcoin has reached a new record level of 86.4 trillion, as per BTC.com data, marking another increase just before the anticipated Bitcoin halving.

This adjustment, made on April 10, represents a 3.4% rise from the previous difficulty setting of 83 trillion recorded on March 28.

As we approach the significant halving event expected to halve miner rewards, the challenge of mining Bitcoin escalates.

This recent adjustment in Bitcoin mining difficulty might be the final one before the halving takes effect.

BTC.com projects the next adjustment in Bitcoin's mining difficulty to happen in 13 days, roughly on April 24, whereas the halving is slated for April 19, based on M2's data.

The mining difficulty is an indicator of the effort and time required to mine a new block or to solve the computational puzzles in Bitcoin's proof-of-work (PoW) system.

Bitcoin's protocol ensures the mining difficulty is recalibrated every 2,016 blocks, or about every two weeks, to keep the average block discovery time at around 10 minutes.

This difficulty adjustment correlates directly with the Bitcoin network's hash rate, which measures the total computational power used by miners to generate new Bitcoin.

Amidst the rising difficulty, the Bitcoin network's hash rate has also significantly increased, jumping from approximately 619 exahashes per second (EH/s) on March 28 to 696 EH/s by April 10, according to BTC.com.

BitInfoCharts records show the Bitcoin hash rate hitting a peak of 727.9 EH/s on March 24.

Some market analysts have speculated that the Bitcoin hash rate may experience a decline following the halving event in 2024.

Mining analysts at Galaxy predict that up to 20% of the current Bitcoin hash rate could be deactivated post-halving, as miners may shut down less efficient mining devices.

They noted that by the end of 2023, eight models of ASIC miners were responsible for producing over 70% of the Bitcoin hash rate.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-mining-difficulty-86-trillion-halving

https://explorer.btc.com/btc/insights-difficulty

https://coinmarketcap.com/events/bitcoin-halving/

https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-hashrate.html#3y