Bitcoin just had its biggest drop in mining difficulties since 2011

Bitcoin (BTC) saw its biggest negative difficulty adjustment in nearly 10 years on November 3rd, as the network looks after itself flawlessly.

Data from the monitoring resource BTC.com shows that Bitcoin’s difficulty was automatically readjusted by 16% on Tuesday.

The difficulty loses more in nine years

Previous estimates had suggested the adjustment would be around 13%, but it was the second highest in Bitcoin history. Only in 2011 was there a greater difference – 18%, again at the end of October.

Difficulty adjustments occur automatically every 2016 blocks and allow Bitcoin to remain “hard” money regardless of any external factors affecting miners.

Such a reduction incentivizes more mining participants to compete for block subsidy rewards, with the result that the difficulty starts to rise again.

At press time, however, estimates place the next adjustment at another -16%, indicating that the effect of Tuesday’s event had not yet been felt.

For users, the downward adjustment will reduce fees and reduce block times, as well as reduce the size of unmined transactions in the Bitcoin mempool. According to Earn.com estimates, the optimal Bitcoin transaction fee remains high, at 80,000 satoshi ($ 11).

Unchanged BTC price

Commentators appeared just a little baffled, praising Satoshi Nakamoto’s design to protect the network and the integrity of the funds instead.

“There is no nicer aspect of #Bitcoin than adjusting the difficulty. Simply beautiful design of the mechanism “, summary Travis Kling, founder of the wealth manager Ikigai.