Key facts:
According to Daniel Frumkin, the current hashrate is more than what is needed to secure the network.
The Bitcoin hashrate is around 210 EH/s, on average.
Bitcoin’s hashrate has grown remarkably since the beginning of the year, to the point of reaching its goal and still having large surpluses. Although it is positive for the network, that does not determine how secure it is, since there are other more important factors that must be taken into account to guarantee this crucial element. These factors have to do with the “quality” of computing power.
This according to Daniel Frumkin, who is the chief content officer of Braiins, a Bitcoin mining company. In contact with CriptoNoticias, asserted that the current hashrate of 210 EH/s is more than is needed to secure the protocol.
“The actual number of exhashes online is not the only thing that determines how secure Bitcoin is, and in fact there are several much more important factors that have more to do with the ‘quality’ of the hashrate,” Frumkin noted.
In the opinion of the specialist the geographical and jurisdictional distribution of the hashrate is one of these factors. “Know if the hash rate is concentrated in a few countries or distributed in dozens of nations, for example,” he explained.
“Which is safer? A decentralized network with 10 miners having 20 EH/s each for a total of 200 EH/s? Or a network with 10,000 miners and 100 EH/s in total and no miners with more than 2 individual EH/s? (…) I believe 100% that more participants is a good thing for security. 100 EH/s from 10,000 mining entities is objectively better (more secure and decentralized) than 100 EH/s from only 1,000 mining entities.”
Daniel Frumkin, Chief Content Officer of Braiins.
hashrate on the rise
Daniel Frumkin’s statement comes at a time when the Bitcoin hashrate is over 210 EH/s, at the close of this note, and according to figures from Braiins. This, maintaining the upward trend that has dragged on since the beginning of the year.
The hashrate, as explained, is the processing power of the network, which is contributed by millions of mining teams that are working in favor of the protocol. As there is an increase in the indicator, an increase in the number of connected miners is plausiblethat is, more computational power available in favor of Bitcoin for the processing of transactions.
The fact is that, during May, the hashrate marked new all-time highs of 231 EH/s. At that time, the bitcoin price was beginning to go on a bearish streak that took mining profitability to 2020 lows, demonstrating an interesting negative correlation between price and hash rate that lasted until the last days of that month.
Along with the hashrate, the difficulty also sheds light on engagement and coincidentally rose to levels never seen before in May, at 31.25 trillion (T), evidencing the significant number of miners who collaborated with the protocol at that time – and continue to collaborate.
“It is more important to have more participants than hashrate”
But again, high participation does not necessarily mean high security.
Frumkin suggests that, in addition to the hashrate, another relevant element to guarantee the security of Bitcoin is know the ability of bad actors to make enough miners SO C and to cause a 51% attack, capable of severely damaging the protocol.
But he sees it unfeasible. As he said, the mass production of ASIC chips is “extremely difficult” to achieve. “Like finding enough energy available and building all the necessary mining infrastructure”he explained.
That is why he defends the worldwide distribution of hashrate, something that is currently seen in the mining map of the University of Cambridge, because that segregation would prevent bad actors from taking over existing computing powerwith which they can carry out an attack against the network.
“One way to attack the network is by taking control of the existing hashrate. It would be much easier to do if 5 companies control 50% of the hashrate and are all within the same country or jurisdiction. It would not be the same if 50 companies in multiple jurisdictions were needed”,
Daniel Frumkin, Chief Content Officer of Braiins.
“Then, it is more important to have more participants in the mining industry than to have more hashrate«, he finished.