3 ms·

They only release the next 50 coins every ten minutes so that's constant. And then they adjust the work factor based on recent history so it's always reasonabl

by kgo 15y ago

They only release the next 50 coins every ten minutes so that's constant. And then they adjust the work factor based on recent history so it's always reasonably hard.

ams6110 15y ago
Wouldn't a quantum computer of the future be able to compute all bitcoins instantaneously?
- rfugger 15y ago
  If it could easily find a preimage for a given SHA-256 hash value, then yeah.
joe_the_user 15y ago
Who's they? Isn't the system supposed to be decentralized? What if "they" change their minds?
- dekz 15y ago
  There is no they who release new blocks, every X number of blocks (2 weeks on average) all nodes recalculate the difficulty level of the next stint to attempt to keep the growth around the expected curve (a new block every 10 minutes). So if some hot new Amazon GPU cloud grid joined and churned out block after block, after the certain X block is reached the difficulty is increased.
  - lutorm 15y ago
    So what prevents me from changing the code I'm running so that the difficulty level is lower? Is this another instance of "if it's accepted by most nodes then it's the truth" mechanism.
    - zrail 15y ago
      The way I understand it, consensus rules. You could modify your client, but you'd have to get the majority of other nodes using your code before you could actually affect change.
    - rfugger 15y ago
      If you lowered your difficulty, other nodes who follow the prescribed convention for setting the difficulty will reject your blocks and any further chain built on them as invalid. Agreement on the formula for computing difficulty is required to have a unified block chain. If a bunch of nodes pick a different difficulty formula, it will fork the block chain, and there will be two different incompatible transaction records.
- kgo 15y ago
  By "they", I meant the nodes. Apologies for anthropomorphizing. As dekz clarified, it's more of a self-regulating system than actually releasing coins at exactly 6:10:00.00, 6:20:00.00, etc. I was just giving the simple explanation.

by kgo 15y ago

They only release the next 50 coins every ten minutes so that's constant. And then they adjust the work factor based on recent history so it's always reasonably hard.

ams6110 15y ago

Wouldn't a quantum computer of the future be able to compute all bitcoins instantaneously?

rfugger 15y ago
If it could easily find a preimage for a given SHA-256 hash value, then yeah.

joe_the_user 15y ago

Who's they? Isn't the system supposed to be decentralized? What if "they" change their minds?

dekz 15y ago
There is no they who release new blocks, every X number of blocks (2 weeks on average) all nodes recalculate the difficulty level of the next stint to attempt to keep the growth around the expected curve (a new block every 10 minutes). So if some hot new Amazon GPU cloud grid joined and churned out block after block, after the certain X block is reached the difficulty is increased.
- lutorm 15y ago
  So what prevents me from changing the code I'm running so that the difficulty level is lower? Is this another instance of "if it's accepted by most nodes then it's the truth" mechanism.
  - zrail 15y ago
    The way I understand it, consensus rules. You could modify your client, but you'd have to get the majority of other nodes using your code before you could actually affect change.
  - rfugger 15y ago
    If you lowered your difficulty, other nodes who follow the prescribed convention for setting the difficulty will reject your blocks and any further chain built on them as invalid. Agreement on the formula for computing difficulty is required to have a unified block chain. If a bunch of nodes pick a different difficulty formula, it will fork the block chain, and there will be two different incompatible transaction records.
kgo 15y ago
By "they", I meant the nodes. Apologies for anthropomorphizing. As dekz clarified, it's more of a self-regulating system than actually releasing coins at exactly 6:10:00.00, 6:20:00.00, etc. I was just giving the simple explanation.