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Topic: 25BTC reward but.. no drop in hash rate! - page 3. (Read 5739 times)

hero member
Activity: 602
Merit: 500
November 29, 2012, 07:49:25 AM
#7
Forum users are a small small minority of the hashing network it often seems, surprising as that may be.

I expect a delay of a week to a month for results to become truly apparent, as people either notice their bitcoin wallets slimming/their pool rewards not being what they once were or they get their next power bill and realize "hey this shit isn't paying itself off so well anymore".

I also expect that the "big boys" (> 100GHash/sec) had to be supremely efficient in the first place to even get that large, and are still making significant enough bucks after the halving that it is worth it to keep going (people with 4GHash/sec might think making just $1-$2 / day is annoying, but multiply that by 25+ and you're still a happy camper).

I was hoping to see some decrease instead of a huge increase in hashing power though, for a graceful decline in hashing power, rather than a big drop that might incite panic.
hero member
Activity: 784
Merit: 1009
firstbits:1MinerQ
November 29, 2012, 07:18:29 AM
#6
Many miners are probably waiting to see what happens to price. Last fall it also took a long time for miners to drop out, but many eventually did. If there's any chance that the price does go up then miners want to keep mining so as to be able to sell more at the higher price. When hope fades of a higher price, and miners decide they can no longer invest, then they will start shutting down. It takes time as miners don't all decide this at once.

Combine this with the expectation that soon they'll be shutting down GPUs due to ASICs and I think many will keep mining until that finally kicks them in the nuts.
sr. member
Activity: 412
Merit: 250
November 29, 2012, 07:05:19 AM
#5
Looks to me like simple time lag. People turned on some extra hashing power to finish off the last few 50 btc blocks and haven't got around to turning them off yet.
hero member
Activity: 840
Merit: 1000
November 29, 2012, 03:51:49 AM
#4
ASIC testing?
A bunch of people who used to mine but stopped noticed the publicity surrounding the halving decided to start up again?
The NSA is trying to mount at 51% attack?
If a 51% attack were underway, it would not be contributing to the network hashrate.  The attacker would be extending the blockchain faster than the entire legitimate network in secret and attack by revealing a longer chain.

I suspect the current jump is simply variance.  Some miners will move to alt coins and some GPU miners with expensive electricity will power their rigs off for good.
sr. member
Activity: 430
Merit: 250
November 29, 2012, 03:45:16 AM
#3
Apart from the rules of bitcoin there is absolutely nothing predictable about it.
legendary
Activity: 1400
Merit: 1013
November 28, 2012, 11:17:25 PM
#2
ASIC testing?
A bunch of people who used to mine but stopped noticed the publicity surrounding the halving decided to start up again?
The NSA is trying to mount at 51% attack?
newbie
Activity: 23
Merit: 0
November 28, 2012, 10:57:20 PM
#1
So the bitcoin block reward just dropped from 50btc to 25btc. I thought the hash rate would drop pretty quickly as many mining rigs became instantly unprofitable. But it looks like the hash rate is actually *increasing* and is sitting at around 28 thash / sec.

Is there a lag because a lot of people don't realize we've hit halving day? Or maybe a lot of miners don't pay for their electricity and it's all about sunk costs?
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