Re:Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in...
by mrits on Sunday April 18, 2021 @12:33AM
(#26849845)
I'm not sure about that. Most miner operations in the US run only a fraction of the day to take advantage of electrical savings that a lot of operations in China wouldn't be doing. So if miners started returning higher yields we would output a larger hash rate. If we actually needed to protect against a 51% attack we could ramp up accordingly.
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Re:Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in...
by gruez on Sunday April 18, 2021 @12:41AM
(#26849876)
The difficulty adjustment only happens every 2016 blocks (~2 weeks), so the higher yields wouldn't happen unless they're down for an extended period of time.
Re:Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in...
by mrits on Sunday April 18, 2021 @01:19AM
(#26849996)
That is correct but I don't see why you are pointing it out.
Re:Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in...
by gruez on Sunday April 18, 2021 @01:29PM
(#26854466)
It's a reply at this part of GP's comment:
>So if miners started returning higher yields we would output a larger hash rate
Re:Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in...
by mrits on Sunday April 18, 2021 @03:13PM
(#26855377)
That statement was to show why there is room to increase hash rate and not how you'd defend against a 51% attack. Most of the miners in the US are not mining for a significant portion of the day.
Re:Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in...
by ndr on Sunday April 18, 2021 @10:42AM
(#26852903)
How much longer than 2 weeks will it take given the sudden drop in miners?
Re:Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in...
by gruez on Sunday April 18, 2021 @01:32PM
(#26854500)
It depends on how long ago the previous retarget is and the current hashrate. The retarget is based on blocks, so if the retarget was 1008 blocks ago, but hashrate dropped by 50%, then it'll take 2 weeks until the next retarget.
There's a chart here with the current estimates: https://fork.lol/pow/retarget