Bitcoin Kicks Off 2020 More Secure Than Ever as Hash Rate Hits Record

Bitcoin (BTC) has already hit a new record in 2020 as the cryptocurrency’s network hash rate once again topped previous all-time highs. 

Data from multiple monitoring resources including Blockchain and Coin Dance confirmed hash rate was higher than ever on the first day of the new year. 

Estimates point to an all-time high for BTC network

A measure of the computing power devoted to validating the Bitcoin blockchain, hash rate spent much of 2019 in a continuous growth cycle. Only for a brief period in Q3 did the upward trend level off.

Strong hash rate suggests Bitcoin is a more appealing proposition for miners — more mining power translates into better network security and robustness against potential attacks.

According to Blockchain, the metric hit 119 quintillion hashes per second (h/s) on Jan. 1. 

Bitcoin 1-year network hash rate. Source: Blockchain

Coin Dance’s figures are different, with 143 quintillion h/s recorded for the same date. 

Bitcoin 14-month network hash rate. Source: Coin Dance

Markets await “price follows hash rate”

The reason for the variation lies in the fact that the hash rate is all but impossible to measure in real terms. Resources can only analyze recent network activity and from that create an estimate of presumed hash rate. 

In September, what appeared to be an overnight 40% drop in hash rate was subsequently attributed to the way it is calculated. 

The recent records have further come independent of Bitcoin price action. BTC/USD fluctuated between $3,100 and $13,800 last year, but the hash rate trend endured. 

Commentators, including Keiser Report host Max Keiser, have also claimed that hash rate highs will ultimately produce new Bitcoin price highs.

At press time, the pair traded at just above $7,100, down around 3% over the three days covering the hash rate record.

Bitcoin has recently set other technical records, which Cointelegraph reported last week.