ETH Block Time Reduced By 25% Following Muir Glacier Hard Fork

The average block time on the Ethereum blockchain known as the ETH block time reduced recently by almost a quarter after the mining difficulty was decreased. As statistics and data shows, from January 1 to January 4 the average block time on the blockchain decreased from 17.16 seconds to 12.96 – translating to a 24.48% shorter block time.

The cryptocurrency news also show that the ETH block time decrease resulted in a higher number of blocks mined daily and a higher Ether (ETH) inflation. According to the Ethereum block count on Etherscan and the rewards chart, during January 1st miners created 4,980 new blocks and 10,237 in new ETH. This has been a nearly 32% increase in the number of blocks and over 31% increase in block rewards. Meanwhile, stats in the news from January 4 showed that the network’s miners created 6,570 new blocks and 13,437 new ETH. This marks an increase of 32% in the number of blocks.

All of the changes described above in the ETH block time are consequences of the recent implementation of the Muir Glacier hard fork which was reported on our website on January 2. This fork is meant to delay the so-called Ethereum ice age which we described. For those of you who didn’t follow the ETH news, the ice age protocol increased the mining difficulty over time until it makes the mining of the chain practically impossible.

The ice age will also come about through a series of difficulty bombs. However, it is a measure that is meant to prevent miners from continuing to mine the old Ethereum chain following the Ethereum 2.0 proof-of-stake blockchain deploys.

All in all, the ETH block time reduced by almost a quarter – and this is a serious sign that may worry many people. Currently, the biggest altcoin by market cap is stable at $141 after yesterday’s rally which kicked things up a notch and made sure that ETH is reaching the $140 level.

In the near future, analysts expect the ETH block time to stabilize and the price to visit heights around $150. This would be ideal, knowing that the market cap finally reached the $200 billion mark and the dominance of Bitcoin (BTC) lowered to 67.6% which is a good sign for many altcoins.