Extreme Winter Weather Disrupts BTC Mining

Over the weekend, miners across the United States shut down as a strong storm moved across North America.

The Bitcoin mining hashrate, a measure of computational power on the blockchain, fell by around 100 exahash per second (EH/s), or 40%, between December 21 and December 24, according to BTC.com. As of December 25, it had restored to around 250 EH/s.

The approach, termed as curtailment, is promoted as a means for miners to assist power systems. The miners’ consistent demand guarantees that power providers generate cash to cover expenses, but they can turn off when demand from other sources is strong, such as during winter storms.

According to figures from the information portal Mining Pool Stats, Foundry USA, the largest mining pool in the United States, lost more than half of its hashrate on December 23 — the most loss of any significant pool.

Some of the country’s largest mines have also reduced their operations. Riot Blockchain and Core Scientific, which is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, were among them. According to Lee Bratcher, the founder and president of industry association Texas Blockchain Council, 99% of industrial scale bitcoin mining load was shut off in Texas at 6 a.m. on Saturday.