Bitcoin ‘Network Difficulty’ Will Spell the Death of The Crypto in 2022

Network difficulty for Bitcoin mining rose to a new height in the past year.

Reassuring its position as the most resilient blockchain network against attacks, the Bitcoin network recorded a new all-time high network difficulty for the second time this month in April,  jumping from its previous all-time high of 28.587 trillion to 29.794 trillion.

What is network difficulty?

The difficulty is a measure of how difficult it is to mine a Bitcoin block, or in more technical terms, to find a hash below a given target. A high network difficulty means that it will take more computing power to mine the same number of blocks, making the network more secure against attacks.

Greater network difficulty demands greater computational power to successfully mine a Bitcoin (BTC) block, which prevents bad actors from taking over the network and manipulating transactions, also known as double-spending. As evidenced by data from Blockchain.com, Bitcoin's network difficulty has seen almost a year-long uptrend since August 1, 2021. Before that, between May and July 2021, was a timeline when BTC network difficulty fell nearly 45.5% from 25.046 trillion to 13.673 trillion — at the time raising momentary concerns about the network's vulnerability.

How are Things Escalating?

Further cementing Bitcoin's resilience against 51% attacks, on April 28, the Bitcoin network hash rate, too, recorded a new ATH of 258 EH/s. As shown below, the network hash rate eased down to the 220 EH/s mark by the end of the month with no visible negative impact on the BTC network difficulty. The month of April also was witness to one of the lowest average transaction fees on the Bitcoin network the cost associated with transferring BTC. For the first time in two years, on April 18, the average BTC transaction fee fell to $1.039, which at its highest was $62.788 in April 2021. While Bitcoin miners continue to pursue the last 2 million BTC into circulation, the network is well-positioned to attain a newer all-time high with respect to overall security and price.

New research paints an optimistic picture about BTC, underscoring the strength of holders hoping for all-time highs. As Cointelegraph reported, on-chain indicators suggest bullish momentum thanks to a lack of short-term holders (STHs), as noted by popular analyst "Root:"