Miners Compete to Find Block 840,000 as Bitcoin Halving Approaches
With the Bitcoin halving event drawing near, miners are in a race to discover block 840,000. Initially expected to occur on April 20, 2024, recent data suggests that the halving will likely take place a day earlier on April 19. Despite the increase in mining difficulty, miners have managed to maintain a high hashrate, resulting in block times falling below the average ten-minute mark.
Currently, there are only 519 blocks remaining until the Bitcoin halving at block 840,000. Initially, the event was anticipated to coincide with the culturally significant 4-20 date, known for its associations with cannabis culture. However, online counters now indicate an April 19 date. These counters rely on the average ten-minute block intervals, which can vary from the estimated time. At present, the pace of block generation is around 9 minutes and 23 seconds.
The hashrate, which recently hit a record high of 644 exahash per second (EH/s), remains steady at 634 EH/s. This indicates that miners are applying significant hashpower in their quest to discover block rewards of 6.25 BTC. With the competition being intense, each mining pool is eager to be the one to find block 840,000.
The mining pools that discovered the blocks during the previous halvings in 2012, 2016, and 2020 continue to operate today. Onchain metrics reveal that Block 210,000, reducing the reward from 50 to 25 BTC per block, was uncovered by Slushpool (now known as Braiins Pool). Block 210,000 was mined using a Radeon HD 5800 graphics processing unit (GPU) and was a highly valuable find. F2pool discovered block 420,000 during the 2016 halving, marking a decrease in block rewards from 25 to 12.5 BTC. Antpool was responsible for finding block 630,000 during the 2020 halving, which brought the block reward down to the current 6.25 BTC.
As Bitcoin’s halving approaches, the hashrate has seen significant growth, reaching over 100 exahash per second (EH/s) on May 11, 2020, when BTC was valued at about $8,600 per coin. By the time block 840,000 is mined, which is expected to be around April 19, 2024, miners will receive 3.125 BTC per block, in addition to transaction fees. This period marks a milestone in Bitcoin’s history, as miners will receive the lowest amount of bitcoins to date.
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