Bitcoin Hashrate Hits All-Time High - WiM Weekly
Bitcoin Hashrate Hits All-Time High - WiM Weekly
A weekly rundown of new WiM podcast releases and some food for thought
Bitcoin’s mining difficulty surged 3.6% Wednesday, setting a new all-time high as network hashrate reached unprecedented levels earlier this week. At block height 860,832, difficulty climbed to 92.67 trillion, surpassing the previous record of 90.67 trillion set in late July, according to Mempool.
Bitcoin mining difficulty is a relative measure of how hard it is to find the correct hash for a new block in the Bitcoin blockchain. The mining difficulty adjusts automatically every 2,016 blocks (or 2 weeks) to ensure that new blocks are mined every ~10 minutes, regardless of the total computational power (hashrate) being contributed to the network. This self-regulating “difficulty adjustment” is key in maintaining the security and stability of the Bitcoin network.
The civilizations that thrive are those that channel energy the most effectively. Whether it’s through mastering fire, harnessing the power of the wind and water, or converting fossil fuels into electricity, the ability to harness and direct energy is the central driver of civilization. There is no such thing as a low-energy, rich country:
Energy producers face an ongoing challenge: they must balance supply and demand by generating the exact amount of energy needed to match consumption. Too little energy, and the system risks blackouts and disruptions. Too much, and resources are wasted, driving up costs and inefficiencies. Recent WiM guest Mitchell Askew explains the relationship between Bitcoin miners and energy producers in his book “The Conservative Case for Bitcoin” — “Let’s say you vow to [a] pizza restaurant that you will purchase all leftover pizza at the end of the night. However, you also vow that you will step out of the way when other customers arrive, letting them purchase as much pizza as they want. The owner of the restaurant can now produce as much pizza as he has the ingredients for, with full assurance that he will sell them all. Moreover, he doesn’t have to worry about aggravating “real” customers by not meeting their demand. It’s a win-win for all parties involved.”
Bitcoin miners are flexible consumers, happy to purchase large amounts of base-load energy while retaining the ability to halt usage programmatically. Miners are a godsend to energy producers, serving as a “customer of last resort” and incentivizing increased energy production - the lifeblood of all civilization.
This Week:
WiM512 with Polycarp Nakamoto
“We need Web5 so we can take ownership of our data and have privacy and security once again. We've been slowly losing [our privacy] thanks to the internet. We are literally putting everything that we have out there in public and signing user agreements, which are contracts. If you say yes to a user agreement, that is a contract between you and a third party. That is not just for legal purposes; that is literally saying you can sell who I am and I get nothing. We're being robbed.” — Polycarp Nakamoto
Link to full episode: Web5: The Future of the Bitcoin-Based Internet with Polycarp Nakamoto (WiM512)
WiM513 with Monika Bravo
"When you give away your authenticity for security, that’s where the trauma lives. You’re operating out of fear rather than love, afraid to show who you truly are. But when you embrace your true self, that’s when real healing begins." — Monika Bravo
The full episode with the Monica Bravo will go live today (9/13/24) at 3:00pm EST.
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Next Week:
9/17 with Jack Weatherford
Dr. Jack Weatherford is a cultural anthropologist and New York Times bestselling author of “Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World.”
9/20 with Pat Antuzzi
Pat Antuzzi is an archeologist and master outdoorsman.
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Nevermind, I found https://calltheoperator.wordpress.com.
Robert, I found your discussion with Polycarp invigorating and encouraging. He kept referencing "we" as in things he was working on with a team, however, and I really want to know who the team is so I can follow some of their work. Who is making the lunchbox bitcoin node, for example?