On July 5, Bitcoin mining difficulty fell by more than 5% to a quarterly low of 79.50 terahash (79.5T). This is the biggest drop since March, when the difficulty briefly dipped below 80T. 😮

• Bitcoin mining difficulty is a measure of hashrate that determines how many attempts a mining machine must make before it solves the cryptographic puzzle needed to unlock one of the remaining bitcoins.

• Hashrates are updated every 2,016 blocks, which takes approximately two weeks.

• At the current mining difficulty of 79.5T, the F2Pool mining pool estimates that an ASIC rig with an efficiency of 26 watts per terahash or better (lower) will be profitable if the Bitcoin price does not fall below the $54,000 threshold.

If the price of Bitcoin falls lower, more efficient rigs will be needed to keep miners profitable. If it remains at the same level, conditions should be acceptable for the largest miners, especially in places where there are energy subsidies for mining facilities.