Bitcoin hashrate dropped on Christmas Eve due to winter storms that swept through the US, causing extremely low temperatures and power disruptions. According to data from BTC.com, the hashrate plunged 21% from 8.878 EH/s to 6.945EH/s towards Christmas day.
Several miners in the US have reported disrupted operations. Neil Galloway, the Director of Mining Operations at Compass Mining, said on Twitter: ‘‘Please be prepared for some ups and downs this weekend as we deal with the winter storm,’’ adding that the company’s sites in Texas were already experiencing a downtime.
Some miners have closed operations completely, while others are restraining their power usage to ease the grid. Riot Blockchain posted on Twitter on December 22 that it was shutting down its Rockdale facility in Texas to ensure the safety of its members amid the extreme weather.
Core Scientific, another crypto miner that filed for bankruptcy protection on December 21, was also affected. The company posted that ‘‘it would be participating in multiple power curtailments to help stabilize the electricity grid… and that BTC production is expected to decrease during this time.’’
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Volatility In BTC Hashrate Causes Discussion Around Centralised Mining
Industry experts predict that BTC mining will continue to reduce during winter, as bad weather causes system malfunction. A new discussion has come up about the advantages of decentralized crypto mining. The CEO of Satoshi Act Fund, Dennis Porter, remarked on his Twitter page that the disruptions had less damage despite the bad weather.
‘‘Over 30% of the Bitcoin hashrate has gone offline due to extreme weather in Texas, yet the global Bitcoin network continues to work perfectly. Now imagine if Amazon or Google tried turning off (a third) of their data centers.’’ He said. Other experts, however, think that the concentration of miners, mostly in the US, is behind the declining capacity. The country is one of the dominant mining hubs following a ban on cryptocurrency by China.
