Author: David A. Harding 2020-03-22 07:54:15
Published on: 2020-03-22T07:54:15+00:00
On March 21, 2020, Dave Scotese via bitcoin-dev posed a question regarding how to handle mining power dropping off at a rate that could potentially delay retargeting for weeks, months, or even longer. He suggests two practical solutions: do nothing or hard fork a difficulty reduction. If most mining equipment is still available for operation and bitcoins retain a small fraction of their value compared to the previous retarget period, then doing nothing is probably best as block space becomes scarcer. However, if the Bitcoin price has plummeted more than 99% in two weeks with no hope of short-term recovery or if a large fraction of mining equipment has become unusable, then it's worth discussing a hard fork to reduce difficulty to a currently sustainable level.
Updated on: 2023-06-14T00:08:42.596914+00:00