# Last edited on 2014-08-27 02:04:17 by stolfilocal
# NOT POSTED

I don't understand why the hashrate did not drop when the block reward was halved last time (Dec/2012,correct?).  My guess is that the mining "market" was still considerably under-supplied at the time, so that most miners were operating at more than 50% profit, and continued to be profitable even with the 50% cut in the reward.  Is that the accepted explanation?  Or did most miners just keep on mining at a loss?

Anyway, by free market economics, the bitcoin network should grow until it costs at least 3000BTC/day; at today's price, 500 USD/BTC, that is 1'500'000 USD/day, all expenses included.  After nine months of price stagnation/decline, the network should be operating close to this limit.  (The continuing increase in hashrate comes of course from improvements in technology.)