While Bitcoin (BTC) currently steers a stable course, its mining ecosystem is going through one of the strongest bear stretches in its entire history.
New data from blockchain industry analysis provider Diar reveals that miners have not been doing very well in the last month or so, leading to questions about the effects this could have on Bitcoin’s future. Although the price of the cryptocurrency is 40% higher than it was a year ago, there are many more miners operating in the market and fighting for a block reward whose value in fiat currencies is not keeping up with this growth. Bitcoin miners may have made much more so far in 2018 than they did through all of 2017, but the increase in the price they pay to run their operations is outpacing revenue growth.
“The investment proposition for smaller miners held true throughout most of this year but has since become questionable on the back of an increase of computing power competing for the coinbase reward,” the publication wrote in its report.
Bitcoin’s hashrate has been climbing slowly but surely since the first truly dramatic rise in value in 2014. Since the beginning of 2018, a more dramatic hike than usual has occurred, and it does not follow Bitcoin’s price movements.
This article appeared first on Cryptovest
