Assets, Ethereum

Did Ethereum Difficulty Increase?

The Ethereum network is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of fraud or third party interference. These apps run on a custom built blockchain, an enormously powerful shared global infrastructure that can move value around and represent the ownership of property.

This enables developers to create markets, store registries of debts or promises, move funds in accordance with instructions given long in the past (like a will or a futures contract) and many other things that have not been invented yet, all without a middle man or counterparty risk.

The Ethereum network went live on July 30th, 2015 with 72 million Ethereum premined. Since launch, the price of Ether has seen highs and lows; however, it has remained relatively stable when compared to other cryptocurrencies.

Despite this stability, Ethereum’s difficulty has seen some wild swings.

The difficulty of mining Ethereum is proportional to the amount of hashing power pointed at the network. When more miners join the network, the difficulty increases in order to keep block times at around 10 minutes.

The diffiulty can also decrease if not enough miners are pointed at the network or if miners leave the network.

NOTE: WARNING: There is no guarantee that Ethereum difficulty will remain the same. It is possible that Ethereum difficulty may increase without warning, which could affect your mining profitability. Therefore, it is important to monitor Ethereum difficulty regularly to ensure that you are adequately prepared for any potential changes.

Since launch, Ethereum’s difficulty has seen some wild swings. The chart below shows Ethereum’s difficulty over time.

As you can see, there have been some significant increases and decreases in difficulty.

The largest increase in difficulty came in late September of 2016 when Difficulty increased by over 20%. This was likely due to an influx of new miners joining the network as the price of Ether began to rise.

The second largest increase came in early April of 2017 when Difficulty increased by around 15%. This was likely due to another influx of miners as the price of Ether rose to new all-time highs.

The largest decrease in difficulty came in March of 2017 when Difficulty decreased by over 20%. This was likely due to a combination of factors including: miners leaving the network as the price of Ether fell, not enough new miners joining the network to replace those that left, and/or a reduction in overall hashing power pointed at the network.

The second largest decrease came in early January of 2018 when Difficulty decreased by around 13%. This was likely due to a similar set of factors as March of 2017.

Did Ethereum Difficulty Increase? Overall, yes. However, there have been some significant decreases in Difficulty as well.

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