Ethereum's hash rate hit a new all-time high recently, although it is still a tiny amount compared to the computing power amassed by the Bitcoin network.
According to data from YCharts, Ethereum's hash rate hit a new all-time high of 966,9 terahashes per second (TH/s) yesterday. The computing power of the second cryptocurrency Ethereum, the largest blockchain in the market by capitalization, has grown significantly over the past 3 years. According to the platform's data, Ethereum's hash rate has gone from 150 TH/s in January 2019 to the 966 TH/s it currently has, showing a growth of more than 2.500% in this time. However, the computational power of this blockchain network continues to be tiny compared to Bitcoin. YCharts shows that Ethereum's hash rate has increased by XNUMX% compared to Bitcoin. Bitcoin is above the 168.000 TH / s, this being the network blockchain most powerful that exists in the entire world.
At the time of writing, Ethereum's hash rate represents approximately 0,6% of all the computing power accumulated by the Bitcoin network.
Source: YCharts
The growth of the Ethereum hash rate coincides with a slight rise in the price of its cryptocurrency ETH. data Data from CoinGecko show that the unit value of ETH has grown by 0,6% over the past 24 hours, while the value of Bitcoin continues to correct, losing 1,6%. ETH is currently trading at around $3.780, while the value of the industry-leading cryptocurrency is hovering around $45.800 per unit.
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Number of connected nodes
While Bitcoin has about 14.700 nodes connected worldwide today, the Ethereum network has more than 5.500, according to data from Ethernodes. Almost 85% of the nodes connected to the Ethereum blockchain work with the Go Ethereum client (Geth).
Source: Ethernodes.org
Since December 2020, when Ethereum developers announced the successful launch of the Ethereum beacon chain, Ethereum 2.0, the Beacon Chain, has diminished the number of nodes connected to the proof-of-work network and increased the number of active validators on the Ethereum 2.0 network, the new blockchain that is built using the protocol proof of stake (PoS). To date, the ETH 2.0 beacon chain has 277.354 validators assets and 9,27 million ethers deposited, valued at over $35.000 billion.
Mining difficulty
The difference between the mining difficulty of the Ethereum and Bitcoin networks is also noticeable. At the time of writing this article, Ethereum has a mining difficulty of 12,69 T; while in Bitcoin it exceeds 24,27 T.
La mining difficulty In a blockchain it is a parameter that determines how difficult it is to solve the mathematical problems that networks demand. PoW to extract a new block. This is a self-adjusting mechanism that guarantees cryptocurrency mining according to the time stipulated in its code. In the case of Bitcoin, approximately every 10 minutes. The mining difficulty is automatically readjusted, depending on the number of connected nodes and the hash rate they accumulate within the network.
Ethereum vs. Ethereum Bitcoin
Although Ethereum and Bitcoin are two major projects in the crypto industry, each has its own characteristics and objectives. Currently, Bitcoin is the most widely adopted cryptocurrency worldwide as an investment asset and store of value. On the other hand, the use of ether is more oriented towards transactions within blockchain applications and protocols.
Dapps, DeFi, NFTs and Metaverses
Although the Ethereum network still has a long way to go to surpass Bitcoin as the most powerful blockchain network in the world, its programming language Solidity and its ability to implement smart contracts have natively made this chain the leading network for the development of decentralized applications (DApps), decentralized finance protocols (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFT) and metaverses.
Ethereum is the blockchain ecosystem par excellence for the development of important projects. This blockchain will migrate to the PoS protocol to optimize its scalability and performance and combat high gas fees, which raised commission costs to $ 39 dollars for simple transactions on the network. Meanwhile, other scalability-focused blockchains such as Solana, Cardano, Polkadot, and Terra are beginning to gain ground on Ethereum within the industry. These chains occupy the fifth, sixth, ninth, and tenth places in the market by capitalization, respectively.
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