Bitcoin hashrate hits seven-month high as Starknet weighs L1 shift and PHP flaw delayed

Mining power rebounds despite shift to AI

Bitcoin (the digital money secured by a global network of computers) saw its network hashrate (the total computing power used to secure the network) reach a seven-month high on Oct. 22, 2026, according to BlocksBridge Consulting. This came even as many large, publicly traded Bitcoin miners were moving computing power away from mining and toward artificial intelligence.

The seven-day average hashrate climbed above 1 zettahash per second for the first time since March 3, showing that computing power leaving the network was being replaced by other miners.

Tougher odds as difficulty rises

• Rising difficulty: Bitcoin mining difficulty (how hard it is to earn new Bitcoin) increased 5.92% on Oct. 16. BlocksBridge projects another 5.16% increase at the next adjustment, for a combined 11.4% across two adjustments.
• Miners moving to AI: Publicly traded mining companies reported a 23% decline in realized hashrate, while their AI-related revenue increased 52% quarter over quarter.
• Hardware displaced: BlocksBridge estimates roughly $1.5 billion worth of mining equipment has been displaced by this shift. Some of that hardware may be finding new buyers among smaller miners with access to cheaper electricity.

Starknet community votes to research an independent layer-1

Starknet, a layer-2 network (a system built on top of another blockchain to process transactions more efficiently) that currently runs on Ethereum (a blockchain used to run many apps and contracts), held a non-binding governance vote on whether to research becoming an independent, post-quantum layer-1 blockchain (a separate base network with its own security).

The vote ran for seven days and closed on the reported date, drawing about 3,200 votes with 93.52% of voting power in favor. According to StarkWare, this was the highest participation in Starknet's governance history, and StarkWare abstained from voting to leave the decision to the community.

The outcome only allows research to move forward. A separate, binding governance vote would be required for any actual shift. For now, Starknet will continue to operate as an Ethereum layer-2 network. StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson told Cointelegraph that work on a whitepaper is set to begin and a draft could be released for public review in November.

PHP Foundation admits delay to critical security fix

The PHP Foundation has acknowledged that indecision and a shortage of resources led to a delayed fix for a critical security flaw first identified in 2024. It called the stalled response a "structural failure." PHP is a programming language widely used to power websites and web applications.

As a precaution, government agencies and other organizations worldwide took websites offline on Wednesday while PHP released emergency patches for two related critical vulnerabilities that could allow unauthenticated attackers to execute code on affected servers without logging in.

The foundation reported that developers first saw signs of the issue in 2024, but struggled to find a fix without disrupting the large ecosystem built on PHP. It was brought back to the top of the priority list on August 11 after security firm Calif and OpenAI independently reported the same underlying issue. Calif demonstrated unconditional remote code execution, which made the fix urgent.

What is confirmed and what remains open

Confirmed: Bitcoin hashrate above 1 zettahash per second for the first time since March 3; mining difficulty rose 5.92% on Oct. 16 with a projected 5.16% increase next; public miners saw a 23% drop in realized hashrate and a 52% rise in AI-related revenue; Starknet's non-binding vote passed with 93.52% in favor of researching an independent post-quantum L1; the PHP Foundation admitted a structural failure delayed a fix for a 2024-identified critical flaw and emergency patches were released for two related vulnerabilities.

Still unclear: No timeline or details for a binding Starknet vote were provided in the supplied material. The exact number of websites taken offline due to the PHP precaution was not stated. No specific recovery of displaced mining equipment was confirmed beyond the possibility of smaller miners buying it.

Sources

• Cointelegraph