3 ms·

Does this mean the mining has suddenly become easier & more profitable w/ lower difficulty rates for the remaining 60% capacity to keep it 1 block/10 minutes?

• wmf 4y ago
  No, because difficulty only adjusts every two weeks.
  • lucb1e 4y ago
    You have to spend 40% more time before someone finds a valid hash, but any miner is 40% more likely to be the one to find a valid hash... sounds like that should cancel out indeed but I'm not entirely sure.
    • jallen_dot_dev 4y ago
      You (as an individual miner) would still mine the same number of blocks on average as before, nothing has changed from your perspective (difficulty/hashrate). You would find a larger percent of all blocks mined, but same absolute number of blocks.
  • ineedasername 4y ago
    So a sudden 40% loss in hashrate could substantially impact & lengthen the 10min/block rate, unless there's quite a bit of excess capacity (equivalent to 40%) that could be brought online in response.
  • dwaltrip 4y ago
    Does anyone know if there are good reasons for not adjusting the difficulty more often?
    • rahen 4y ago
      Yes, it could allow to cheat the algorithm. Consider the two weeks period as a strong low-pass filter on cheating tentative. https://old.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/mtugta/mentor_monday_april_19_2021_ask_all_your_bitcoin/gv86j6b/?context=5 https://old.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/mtugta/mentor_mond... (the answer from nullc is the most insightful)