Lastly.. anyone notice how network hashrate overall stabilized? According to my math we're looking at a 1% increase next change. The number of minutes between blocks (supposed to be 10):
((timestamp of last block) - (timestamp of last block before diff change)) / 60 / (number of blocks since last change) = 9.79 mins
Divide 10 by that value to get the ratio..
Multiply that ratio times current difficulty to get projected next difficulty.
Now that could mean people stopped adding hash power, or it could mean the network globally is experiencing a really hard time solving blocks at 100% luck since the last difficulty.
M
Looks like somebody took a big chunk of hash (8-10 Petahash) off of the network. Probably an ASIC manufacturer spooling them up for testing, then turning them off and shipping them out to customers... or simply moving them to a permanent location. I'm sure that all or most of that hash will re-appear before the next diff change.
https://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/difficulty