The reason why your Bitcoin Transaction is taking longer than usual to confirm

It has been a weird past few days for Bitcoin users. 

Transaction fees are, well, relatively low, but there is one nagging concern: Settlement time.

Waiting for half to a full hour has been the order for traders. It can be particularly inconvenient for traders who want to take advantage of favorable price action to make profits. The faster a transaction confirms, the higher the chances of making money in a trending market.

So, what has been happening?

For one, there is a 'hash rate' shock. 

In six weeks, Bitcoin lost over 66 percent of mining power after China decided to crack down on crypto mining operations.

It so happens that most BTC miners have their operations in various industrial hubs especially, previously in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Sichuan. China thinks Bitcoin and crypto mining waste energy and contribute to needless carbon emission.

The problem is, with the falling hash rate, mining difficulty remains high. This means it still requires miners to confirm the transaction at the same level of difficulty as when the hash rate stood at over 170 EH/s—or in recent times, around 100 EH/s.

This difficulty, therefore, meant it took longer for miners to solve complex math and include transactions in a block.

The good news is: Mining difficulty has been lowered to reflect the current state of computing power. Subsequently, Bitcoin algos will readjust, ensuring transactions are processed within the usual 10 minutes.