The Bitcoin halving of 2024 is set to fundamentally transform the mining industry, challenging profitability and prompting a strategic reevaluation of energy use and operational efficiency.
Mining News
Mining is the process of adding and validating transaction records on the Bitcoin public blockchain ledger while securing uptime for the network. This is how the network persists without relying on trusted third parties using vulnerable, centralized infrastructure. Mining is also used to distinguish legitimate Bitcoin (BTC) transactions from attempts at double-spending, which is when a user attempts to re-spend money that has already been spent somewhere else.
What miners are actually doing is continually guessing for a specific number (the nonce) designated in the header of the following block, which has a predetermined number of zero bits. When they guess the correct number after using extensive computation power, they solve the proof-of-work and are rewarded with the protocol currency, BTC. This simultaneously serves as the minting process for Bitcoin.
Bitcoin mining has come a long way since the network’s launch in 2009. In the early days, mining was how one would participate within the Bitcoin economy, using relatively modest computation resources such as an average consumer-grade laptop to allocate hashing power to solving the proof-of-work algorithm and earn Bitcoin from the block subsidy, all while securing the network.
Since then, mining has become a multibillion-dollar global industry, with massive operations and facilities around the world using incredible amounts of resources to compete for the block rewards of many different cryptocurrencies, all the while providing critical infrastructure and security to these networks.
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Much of the debate surrounds whether Act 851 should be changed and how specific those changes should be.
1720The Swedish Tax Agency found several crypto firms provided misleading business descriptions to avoid paying taxes between 2020 and 2023.
1130The five largest Bitcoin mining firms are not selling in anticipation of the Bitcoin halving, despite historical data suggesting a significant post-halving drop in BTC mining revenue.
9283Blockware Solutions analyst Mitchell Askew says fears around post-halving Bitcoin mining profitability are baseless as crypto miner stock prices have tumbled.
6878The halving could impact the number of daily available BTC by reducing the miner rewards by 50%.
4351The mining industry in Norway has been largely unregulated up to this point, according to the country’s minister of energy, who cited concerns regarding the greenhouse emissions related to Bitcoin mining.
4298China holds an alarming amount of power over Bitcoin miners in the United States. Congress should act to scale back the country's influence.
24215ASIC launched civil proceedings against two Australian cryptocurrency firms, NGS and DCA Capital, following a collapse as investors are still owed over $160 million.
8243Paraguay’s lawmakers have proposed an alternative to a controversial Bitcoin mining blanket ban and are set to debate the topic later this month.
3884Auradine’s previous funding round brought in $81 million and was led by Marathon Digital Holdings.
5068Biden wants to impose a new 30 percent tax on the electricity that Bitcoin miners are using — regardless of how it's sourced. That means many will move abroad.
1532Exploring the intersection of NFT technology and Bitcoin mining, a new innovative approach is set to democratize access and ensure sustainability in the crypto mining landscape.
10549The increasing Bitcoin network fees could complement miner revenue post-halving thanks to the emergence of Ordinals inscriptions and BTCFi, according to Acheron Trading’s CEO.
8829Bitcoin mining has provided a “positive contribution to Paraguay’s trade balance,” and a ban could dent the economy, argues Hashlabs Mining’s co-founder.
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