Topic: Bitcoinwatch.com NOOB QUESTIONS (Read 724 times)

You're brilliant. Thank you.

Yes.

Yes.

For a block to be solved, its hash must be lower than the "target", which is basically the inverse of the difficulty. It takes, on average, (difficulty * 2^32) hash attempts to solve a block.

The time taken to solve the last 2016 blocks. It should take exactly 2 weeks to solve 2016 blocks. If it actually took less time than this, the difficulty for the next 2016 blocks is increased in proportion to the time taken (eg, if it took only 1 week to solve the last 2016 blocks, the difficulty would double); if it took longer than 2 weeks, the difficulty is decreased. This ensures that blocks are solved, on average, once every 10 minutes.

This figure is calculated by multiplying the current difficulty by (2^32 / 600) and is only an estimate of the network hashrate. Since difficulty is a determined by the average time taken to solve blocks, and since solving blocks is essentially random, it is possible that the network hashrate is actually lower and miners are just getting lucky, or the network hashrate could be higher and miners are unlucky. But it should be accurate on average.

PetaFLOPS = Quadrillions of FLoating point Operations per Second. It is a standard measure of supercomputer power. It is calculated by multiplying the network hashrate by the number of floating point operations a typical supercomputer could perform in the time taken to hash a block. Note that mining does not actually involve floating point operations, and some mining hardware doesn't even have the capability to perform floating point operations at all, so this number is completely meaningless.

The difficulty adjustment tries to ensure that 52500 blocks are solved per year, though since solving blocks is a random process, the number of blocks solved in any given year varies and cannot be predicted exactly. Currently, the mining reward is BTC50 per block (BTC2625000 per year), and halves every 210000 blocks (every 4 years, on average).

Also I'd like to know how I can figure out how much the total mining market is for the current year?

Is there an exact number of blocks that will be made this year? and coins?

"Economy

Total BTC        9,343,350 BTC"

Is the above the total BTC mined up to the current date?


"Count   186,866"

Is this the total blocks mined up to the current date(starting from 2009)

"Difficulty      1,726,567"

How does the difficulty rating affect finding a block, and how can we calculate finding a block through mathematical equation?

"Next Difficulty
in 622 blocks
1,740,928"

What determines the number is at the next difficulty

"Network Hashrate
Terahashs/s
12.46"

Is the above number accurate?

"Network Hashrate
PetaFLOPS
158.27"

What does in PetaFLOPS mean?