On October 17, it took over an hour to mine a block Bitcoin [BTC], leaving thousands of transactions in limbo until the mining process was complete. According to on-chain information compiled by some block explorer85 minutes elapsed between the two most recent blocks mined by Foundry USA (which controls over 23% of the mining pool) and Luxor.
Mining at block level 759053-054 took an unprecedented 85 minutes, well in excess of the approximate time frame of 10 minutes. Before the last block could be mined, more than 13,000 transactions were stuck in the confirmation phase.
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Here is AMBCrypto Bitcoin price prediction [BTC] for 2022-23
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Source: btc.com
Mining difficulty increases, profitability decreases
The exact reason for the block generation delay was unknown, although a reasonable cause could be postulated. BTC mining difficulty increased, making it harder to obtain new blocks.
Also the hash rate elevated, which meant more energy was used to create and add new blocks than was possible just a few months ago. As a direct result of rising electricity prices around the world, mining was now more expensive than ever. Sustainable energy sources were the obvious choice, but building a system large enough to power mining equipment is prohibitively expensive.
Source: Blockchain.com
The revenue chart showed a decline, showing that mining was less profitable despite the costs involved. This loss could be due to a number of variables, including the falling value of BTC and the decreasing size of the block reward.
Additionally, the unprofitability of BTC mining led to some mining companies shutting down during the crypto bear market. Existing miners may have felt the effects of this additional burden hence the delay.
Source: Blockchain.com
BTC resistance
This delay in adding blocks didn’t seem to impact BTC’s price. Looking at its price action over a 12-hour period, it was up more than 0.60% through Oct. 17. However, the trend line showed a downtrend in the overall trend of BTC.
Resistance to the price action appeared to have been present between $20,418 and $20,865. The support levels located in the $18,500 and $18,104 area seemed to hold.
Slightly above the resistance levels as seen by the blue line was the 200 moving average which effectively served as further resistance. TThe 50 moving average should also have served as resistance, but it appeared to have been broken on the 12-hour time frame.
Source: TradingView
An unaffordable failure
The Chinese cryptocurrency ban period was Bitcoin’s slowest block time. Block additions surpassed 100 minutes in 2021, a year in which China ramped up its anti-cryptocurrency campaign.
BTC trading volume in 24 hours hit over $26 billion on Oct. 17, according to Coinmarketcap. Millions of transactions would be secured if blocks were constantly failing. This reduces Bitcoin’s appeal and can negatively impact its price.
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