Bitcoin mining started out as a small endeavor taken on by a few individuals repurposing home computers to mint virtual coins that were, at the time, almost worthless. Fast forward to 2020, and Bitcoin (BTC) mining has become a formidable industry of its own, constantly growing and evolving alongside Bitcoin itself.
Today, the Bitcoin network’s hash rate is sitting at around 129 EH/s, acting in a similar way to the price of Bitcoin, even following the halving in October this year that saw the mining reward cut in half. James Bennett, CEO of ByteTree crypto data provider, told Cointelegraph that the trend is likely to continue: “The investment into Bitcoin’s network infrastructure is clear. You only need to look at the series of all-time-highs of network difficulty to see the rate new mining capacity is being added.” So, here’s how the mining industry is changing and maturing.