About 37% of the cryptocurrency customs expects Bitcoin's (BTC) hashrate to be higher ane month later on the cake reward halving than information technology currently is, according to a contempo poll.

Cryptocurrency portfolio tracking awarding, Blockfolio, polled its users on April 27. They asked whether they believe Bitcoin'south hash rate will be college or lower one month later the halving.

The community has a positive outlook

Blockfolio's question was answered by over 8,000 users. Amongst the respondents, 37% believed that the hashrate would be college, 29% that it would be lower, and 17% that information technology would be the same. The remaining 17% admitted that they did not know. Philip Salter, the head of mining operations at mining business firm Genesis Mining, told Cointelegraph that new mining awarding specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, should assist preserve Bitcoin'southward hashrate post-halving.

Salter explained that to understand the impact of the halving on Bitcoin's hashrate, i must know several important data points. How Bitcoin's price will develop, how much miners will stop their activity due to reduced profitability, and how much hashrate volition exist added due to new hardware. He explained:

"In that location is a new generation of [mining ] on their way, which should come up online shortly after the halving. So that by default will increase hashrate. [...] It's evident from the survey results that people are unsure how to respond these questions. But more people remember that hashrate will get up, showing a bullish sentiment on the price and [...] trust in the manufacturers to deliver on time."

An expert's prediction

Salter estimates that post-halving, the Bitcoin hashrate volition be near 30% lower than it currently is if the price does not go up. If Bitcoin prices continue to get up on the other hand, he thinks the hashrate could stay stable afterwards the block advantage is reduced. He also noted that "much of the drop shouldn't happen immediately, since miners can't turn off instantly." Notwithstanding, he expects recovery to follow if the drop does happen:

"Midterm, the hashrate should recover quite speedily. Most [ASICs] that are turned off volition be Bitmain S9, with an efficiency of around 90 Westward/TH. The new [ASICs] accept ~30 W/Thursday, then can deliver iii times more hashrate at the same power consumption. That gives us a skilful gauge of how much hashrate can increase without new farms being built.  "

Lastly, Salter expects Bitcoin's network wellness to remain largely unaffected. He admitted that Bitcoin mining will slightly centralize due to less optimized operations stopping activity. The total electricity consumption will as well decrease due to some operations halting. Still, he believes those changes will be only temporary. He says that new hardware will allow home miners to participate in Bitcoin mining over again.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) performed its own block reward halving earlier this month. Shortly afterward the halving, the network saw a lx% autumn in hashrate, going from 4.36 EH/s to 1.6 EH/south in nether a twenty-four hour period. As a Cointelegraph analysis explained presently after, the Bitcoin Cash halving decreased the network's mining profitability and resulted in miners fleeing to competing blockchains.