Hello,
This is a mandatory update for all digitalcoin users.
Profitability HoppingRecently, pool hopping software has made it easy for people to negatively affect crypto-currencies without a second thought. This update attempts to address that issue by capping the maximum difficulty rise at 100% and the maximum drop at 50%. This should help to stabilize the difficulty and lower if not eliminate the negative effects of such websites and software.
FAQQ: How will this update be effective?
A: Profit switching pools target the most profitable coin at any one point in time. This update smooths the digitalcoin difficulty drops to avoid the extremely low difficulty that pool hopping software thrives on.
EXAMPLEBefore:
1. Pool hopping software mines the easy blocks and pushes difficulty to 5
2. Pool hopping hash power leaves and DGC retargets to difficulty 1 because of the lack of hash power
3. Pool hopping software gets on again, mines most of the easy blocks, and pushes difficulty to 5
4. Repeat....
After:
1. Pool hopping software mines the easy blocks and pushes difficulty to 5
2. Pool hopping hash power leaves and DGC retargets to 2.5 difficulty
3. Regular miners join the network because of the improved profitability
4. Network stabilizes at that hash rate because pool hopping software will not switch due to low difficulty spikes
Q: Will regular miners benefit?
A: Yes. Regular miners were being forced to mine high difficulty blocks, and weren't able to get the lower difficulty blocks without joining the profit hoppers. Normal pools and solo miners will benefit from the stability and profitability they'll receive. Once the network stabilizes at an appropriate hash-rate, the lack of difficulty spikes will keep digitalcoin within the proper difficulty.
Q: Will the difficulty be kept artificially high or low?
A: No. The difficulty will function completely normally. The 100% maximum rise and 50% maximum drop are high enough to allow the network to adjust very quickly, but low enough to disrupt profit hopping pools's ability to dictate difficulty.
OtherAdditionally, the update makes client improvements and builds on the stability and security of the client.
You must update before block 476,280. That is the difficulty protocol switching point.
Downloaddigitalcoin Windows QT EXE:
http://digitalcoin.co/download/digitalcoin-qt-V0-2.zipdigitalcoin Mac QT:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6gdafrojcuji1ys/Digitalcoin-Qt-0.2-Mac.zip (thanks to maxpower)
digitalcoin Source:
http://digitalcoin.co/download/digitalcoinSource-V0-2.zipdigitalcoin GIT Repo:
https://github.com/baritus/digitalcoin