Quote from: HairyMaclairy on Today at 10:27:55 PM

Can anyone explain the recent massive drop in difficulty?

https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-networks-mining-difficulty-sees-largest-epoch-drop-since-2011/

Possibly China fud? There was a thread started last week "China cracking down again on bitcoin mining" which contained a link to a png file. The document looks similar to other "official" Chinese gov't edicts but this one did not have the official stamp so I disregarded the information. I did however OCR the image and put it through various translation services to see what it had to say.

Google translator:

Office documents of the Leading Group for the Special Rectification of Internet Financial Risks
Remediation Office Letter (2020) No. 2
Notice
Provincial (autonomous region, municipality), Inner Mongolia Internet Financial Risk Special Work Leading Group Office: According to relevant departments, there are currently some "virtual currency" mining companies, which consume a lot of resources and also contribute to the hype of "virtual currency" According to the National Financial Work Conference, on the spirit of preventing and controlling risks and tightening the outflow of funds, the relevant member units of the leading group of Internet finance special rectification work have decided to immediately inspect and shut down all of the provinces from November 27, 2020. "Virtual currency and other mining companies ordered the removal of related network equipment before December 30, and companies that violated regulations were enforced.

Bing translator:

Internet financial risk special rectification work leading group office documents
Rectification Letter (2020) No. 2
Notice.
Provinces (districts, cities), Inner Mongolia Internet financial risk special work leadership group office: According to the relevant departments reflect that there are some "virtual currency" mining enterprises, in the consumption of a lot of resources at the same time to promote the "virtual currency" hype, according to the National Financial Work Conference, on the prevention and control of risks, tightening the spirit of outflow of funds, Internet finance special rectification work leadership group related member units, decided to immediately check and close all virtual goods in the province Coin and its mining enterprises, ordered by December 30, the withdrawal of related network equipment, violations of the enforcement of enterprises.

and DeepL translator:

Documents of the Office of the Leading Group for the Special Rectification of Internet Financial Risks
Rectification Office Letter [2020] No. 2
Notification
Each province (region and municipality), Inner Mongolia Internet Financial Risk Leading Group Office: According to the relevant departments, there are some "virtual currency" mining enterprises, which consume a lot of resources and also encourage the "virtual currency" mining. In accordance with the spirit of the National Financial Work Conference on risk prevention and control and the tightening of outflow funds, relevant members of the Internet Finance Task Force decided to immediately inspect and shut down all "virtual currency and other mining enterprises" in the province starting November 27, 2020, and ordered that all relevant network equipment be retired before December 30, 2020. Violations Corporate Enforcement

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)