Bitcoin's complete hash-rate fell to around 170 exahash per second (EH/s) on Chrismas Eve, December 25, in Texas. This occurred as a result of Bitcoin miners limiting and disconnecting their hash power due to the extreme winter freeze. According to statistics, about 100 exahash cut off the network only to be rebounded from the 170 EH/s to 240 EH/s by 12pm on Sunday. Earlier, on December 24, the hash-rate was at 272 EH/s. According to a report by Bitcoin.com, Bitcoin miners in Texas have shut down their operations due to cold weather. Dennis Porter, a Bitcoin enthusiast, shared a text message from one of the mining operations firms. According to him, Bitcoin operation Lancium was shut down at its Fort Stockton facility. It was done to provide increased power to the grid.
Porter tweeted, "Bitcoin miners have once again voluntarily shut off power during an extreme weather event in Texas. Bitcoin miners are good for the grid."
Core Scientific, a Bitcoin mining operation, stated that they, too, were forced to implement operational restrictions. The firm said, "Due to extreme cold weather sweeping across the eastern and southern half of the US, we will be participating in multiple power curtailments to help stabilise the electrical grid. BTC production is expected to decrease during this time."
The Bitcoin.com report quoted statistics from coinwarz.com that suggest that about 100 exahash went offline. It added that that hash-rate rebounded to around 240 EH/s in the afternoon.
Amid all of these, Antpool has gone beyond Foundry USA's hash-rate for the first time after so long. Antapool has about 29.92 per cent of the world's network. In addition to that, it also has about 69 EH/s of computational power. On the other hand, Foundry UAS has 19.68 per cent of the total global hash-rate and 45.51 EH/s. It witnessed the current decrease from around 70 EH/s and 31 per cent in the global hash-rate on December 23.
All of these happened as Texas has been dealing with a massive cold freeze. The weather is so extreme that the residents of Texas fear facing icy blackouts, as it happened in 2021.
As the state is experiencing subzero temperatures during the ongoing Christmas and New Year holidays, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) was struggling hard to remain stable amid the winter test of power shortages.
Neil Galloway, Compass Mining's director, tweeted, "Please be prepared for some ups and downs this weekend as we deal with the winter storm. Our hosting partners and technicians are working in rough conditions that may slow down progress but we are monitoring things throughout the weekend."
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