Litecoin mining difficulty has reached a new record level with just under 18 million hashes, according to a published publication on Friday by the Litecoin Foundation on CoinMarketCap.

The increase puts Litecoin’s mining difficulty at 17.99 million hashes at block 2,363,707 as of Friday, November 5.

Like Bitcoin, Litecoin uses the proof-of-work consensus mechanism method. Miners of both cryptocurrencies compete to complete extremely challenging math puzzles using a hash algorithm to achieve consensus on their respective networks, earn the right to add valid transaction blocks to their blockchains, and earn block rewards.

The increase in Litecoin mining difficulty shows that competition among miners has increased, which is likely due to more miners joining the network. It means that cryptocurrency mining is becoming more popular and making a worthwhile profit is getting harder and harder.

The Bitcoin mining industry has become extremely competitive in recent years due to the massive increase in people looking to make a profit by mining cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin is now the most challenging cryptocurrency to mine. Because Bitcoin itself is very valuable, the mining rewards are quite considerable. Currently, the Bitcoin block reward is 6.25 BTC, which is equivalent to about 130,000 US dollars, at the time of writing.

While increasing the difficulty of mining means that the chances of making a profit get harder, it’s not always a bad thing. The higher the difficulty of a crypto, the more secure your network will be. This is because a malicious group would need a large amount of power to take over and control the network through a 51% attack.

Litecoin has seen an increase in mining difficulty since 2020. While many miners find increasing difficulty levels very frustrating, as highlighted above, this element of proof-of-work blockchains is undoubtedly vital. Without mining difficulty, these networks would not be able to maintain security and control their circulating supply so easily. So while it may seem like a disadvantage when it increases, it also plays an important role for the network and therefore its users.

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