ATH for hash rate, daily transactions and Ordinals
Many Bitcoin (BTC) miners just came online. The Bitcoin hash rate, or the total computing power of the Bitcoin blockchain, just rose to 439 exahash per second (EH/s). Also, the number of transactions the Bitcoin blockchain processed in one day exceeded 682,000, as over 300,000 Ordinals were entered on the Bitcoin blockchain.
These milestones demonstrate the strength and stability of the network, as well as the growing use of Bitcoin for various use cases, all while the banking sector in the United States is breaking down.
The Bitcoin hash rate, a measure of the computational power dedicated to securing the blockchain, has reached an all-time high, signifying increased confidence in the network’s security. The hash rate is a crucial indicator of network health, as a higher hash rate means more miners are participating, thus making the network more resistant to attack.
The increase in hash rate reflects increasing investment in mining infrastructure despite fluctuations in the price of Bitcoin. More and more territories and regions around the world are mining Bitcoin, with increasing amounts of renewable energy, allaying fears of centralization or environmental impacts that have enveloped Bitcoin mining in the past.
However, as Denver Bitcoin, a well-known Bitcoin miner with Upstream Data Inc, points out, hashrate can be short-lived. It’s important to “see 1500-block to 5k-block average time to get an understanding of real hashrate,” he shared in a tweet:
The hash rate may be temporarily increasing – driven in part by a resurgence in the popularity of Bitcoin ordinary inscriptions. Bitcoin ordinals are unique, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) built on the Bitcoin network, each representing a distinct position on the Bitcoin blockchain. Each ordinal is “inscribed” at one Satoshi (the smallest denomination of a Bitcoin), and owners can prove digital ownership of their Sat.
Ordinals have gained traction among collectors, investors and enthusiasts, offering a new way to engage with the Bitcoin ecosystem. Bitcoin ordinals fan Dan Held, for example, shares that altcoin advocate engage with Bitcoin for the first time due to their creation.
The number of inscriptions in a 24-hour period exceeded 350,000 on May 1, when the total number of ordinals exceeded 3 million. Given that each ordinary inscription also counts as a transaction, the number of Bitcoin transactions has also risen.
As more people buy, sell and trade Bitcoin ordinals, the number of daily transactions on the network has increased significantly to 682,000. The mempool, or “waiting area” for incoming transactions before they are confirmed, is currently very busy. The cheapest transaction fee is 8 sat/vB, or about $0.30 – well above the low of 1 sat/vB. If users want to send money to wallets on the Bitcoin base chain, the costs are significantly higher than usual due to the increasing number of ordinary inscriptions.
Related: .Bitcoin Ordinal’s Community Debates fix for inscription validation error
For some, Bitcoin ordinals offer another role for the network that goes beyond its activities as a store of value and medium of exchange. For others, like Dr. Adam Back, number 76 on Cointelegraph’s top 100, ordinals are useless.
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