There was a disruption in miner supply through 2021, preventing the hash rate following the price up. In 2022, new devices slowly became available, with 21.5J/TH efficiency, 30% lower than the previous devices
Some rough numbers Using October 2020 as a benchmark - before the price surge, before the miner device shortage - 130EH/sec corresponds to a price of USD10,600
Apply that ratio to a price of USD26,800 gives a hash rate of 330E. Add 30% for the more efficient devices makes 429E, pretty close to where it is today
2021 hardware was delivered in 2022, and most of it was the less efficient devices, because most of those orders were made by newly Nasdaq listed corps. The production of 2022 21.5J/TH devices was initially slow to ramp up. By now every miner has to upgrade or lose money
It appears the public companies are losing money, don't have enough capital to upgrade, will continue to lose money until their shareholders' funds are exhausted. To the extent that some of the hash rate is operated by loss-making large corporations, the hash rate is higher than it would be if every miner was rational. This aberration will shake out ofter the halving, because the halving will accelerate the speed of exhaustion of shareholder capital
I've been contemplating this recently as well. I anticipate a significant decline in hash rate after the halving, due the difficulty of miners to remain profitable, unless... the price of Bitcoin skyrockets. Hopefully, we'll have Spot ETFs available by then, which could potentially mitigate these challenges.
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Any opinion on the cheap inputs of rapidly expanding renewable energy with heretofore lack of energy storage solutions?
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Some miner built a war chest and just bought ASICs instead of spending on infra. Those ASICs are still finding plug in spots.
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Trying to mine as much as possible before the halving. It will be even harder next year. Hoping price will go up to be all profitable in the end.
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