Bitcoin’s hash rate remained stable throughout the year as a result of how well it complements the new ATH for the network difficulty of BTC.
The mining difficulty of the Bitcoin network increased to an all-time high of 32.045 trillion late last month, with Bitcoin miners having helped release the 19 millionth BTC into circulation back in April.
The processing power needed to mine BTC blocks, which at the time of writing requires an estimated hash rate of 257 exahashes per second (EH/s), is correlated with the network difficulty of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin’s hash rate remained steady throughout the year, and it reached an all-time high of 257 EH/s on October 9 to support the rise in the network difficulty.
The method of reversing BTC transactions over the blockchain requires at least 51% of the Bitcoin hash rate, hence a greater hash rate provides resistance to double-spending attacks.
The BTC network is anticipated to get stronger as it supports the booming community, with less than 2 million BTC available to mine as incentives and a surge in global Bitcoin miners. The 21 million BTC in circulation will eventually run out by the year 2140, mining the less than two million residual units that are available according to estimates. This is due to variables like halving.