The Litecoin Foundation Says Mining Difficulty Is High

Friday marked the pinnacle of the network’s mining difficulty, suggesting heightened rivalry for miner payouts.

Litecoin mining difficulty has reached a new high, peaking at slightly under 18 million hashes, according to a statement by the Litecoin Foundation on coinmarketcap.com, a website that tracks cryptocurrency market statistics.

The mining difficulty is the average number of hashes needed to “solve” a block. Litecoin miners compete by producing random hashes in an attempt to locate one that is lower than the network’s mining algorithm’s aim. The winner of this computationally difficult lottery is rewarded with the ability to add a new block to the Litecoin network.

With the rise in Litecoin’s mining difficulty, the rivalry for miner incentives is likely intensifying.

The cryptocurrency, which is frequently dubbed to as “digital silver,” is also approaching a “halvening” occurrence. In 2011, when Litecoin was introduced, miners got 50 litecoins (LTC) for mining a block successfully. This payout (referred to as a “subsidy”) is cut in half every 840,000 blocks (roughly every four years). The present 12.5 LTC subsidy is reduced to 6.25 LTC in 2023 as part of the third reduction.

LTC is trading at $68.04 at the time of posting, with a stable price. On Wednesday, however, LTC’s price increased by 13% in a single day, likely owing to the statement by payments giant MoneyGram that its U.S. clients would soon be able to purchase, trade, and store LTC, bitcoin (BTC), and ether (ETH) through its mobile app.