fucking nerds. 
C'mon. If you're going to use this currency, might as well know how it works. 
Topic: From a low level, how does difficulty work? (Read 883 times)
fucking nerds.
Thanks. Can you link me to the formula used to convert difficulty to target? Is it simply the max target divided by the difficulty?
Yes.maximum_target = 0x00000000FFFF0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
difficulty = maximum_target / current_target
multiply both sides by current_target:
current_target * difficulty = maximum_target
divide both sides by difficulty:
current_target = maximum_target / difficulty
Thanks. Can you link me to the formula used to convert difficulty to target? Is it simply the max target divided by the difficulty?
Yes.maximum_target = 0x00000000FFFF0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
difficulty = maximum_target / current_target
multiply both sides by current_target:
current_target * difficulty = maximum_target
divide both sides by difficulty:
current_target = maximum_target / difficulty
Make sense?
Kind of. So the target is a 64 bit number that represents what the hash of the block in numeric form needs to be less than. So, the hash of the block is treated as a hex number, and compared to the target, and it has to be less than the target?Regardless of format, the hash of the block's header is treated as a number, and it has to be less than the target.
And the reason a large amount of zeros are needed prefixing the hash is because it make the value of the hash less than the target. Thank you for explaining that.
Quote
Could a POW algorithm work just as well when the hash has to be greater than the target? Eg. It's prefixed with "fffffff" instead of "000000"?
Sure, there's no reason why the hash needs to be smaller than a small target. Might as well require it to be larger than some large target.So the target is a 64 bit number
A 256 bit number stored as a floating point and truncated:
- http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Target
Also more info here:
What is “difficulty” and how it relates to “target”?
- http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/8806/153
Make sense?
Kind of. So the target is a 64 bit number that represents what the hash of the block in numeric form needs to be less than. So, the hash of the block is treated as a hex number, and compared to the target, and it has to be less than the target?Regardless of format, the hash of the block's header is treated as a number, and it has to be less than the target.
And the reason a large amount of zeros are needed prefixing the hash is because it make the value of the hash less than the target. Thank you for explaining that.
Could a POW algorithm work just as well when the hash has to be greater than the target? Eg. It's prefixed with "fffffff" instead of "000000"?
So the target is a 64 bit number
A 256 bit number stored as a floating point and truncated:
- http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Target
Also more info here:
What is “difficulty” and how it relates to “target”?
- http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/8806/153
Make sense?
Kind of. So the target is a 64 bit number that represents what the hash of the block in numeric form needs to be less than. So, the hash of the block is treated as a hex number, and compared to the target, and it has to be less than the target?Regardless of format, the hash of the block's header is treated as a number, and it has to be less than the target.
Looking for n-zeroes in front isn't precise enough: difficulty jumps exponentially with every digit. Instead, the miner looks for hashes that are numerically less than the target.
Here's the maximum target:
0x00000000FFFF0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
A maximum target means a minimum difficulty, because the higher the target, the more hashes are less than that target.
The difficulty is the maximum target divided by the current target.
As the current target goes down, it becomes harder to generate blocks. The current target is the denominator of the difficulty equation, so as current target goes down, "difficulty" goes up.
Make sense?
Kind of. So the target is a 64 bit number that represents what the hash of the block in numeric form needs to be less than. So, the hash of the block is treated as a hex number, and compared to the target, and it has to be less than the target? Here's the maximum target:
0x00000000FFFF0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
A maximum target means a minimum difficulty, because the higher the target, the more hashes are less than that target.
The difficulty is the maximum target divided by the current target.
As the current target goes down, it becomes harder to generate blocks. The current target is the denominator of the difficulty equation, so as current target goes down, "difficulty" goes up.
Make sense?
Looking for n-zeroes in front isn't precise enough: difficulty jumps exponentially with every digit. Instead, the miner looks for hashes that are numerically less than the target.
Here's the maximum target:
0x00000000FFFF0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
A maximum target means a minimum difficulty, because the higher the target, the more hashes are less than that target.
The difficulty is the maximum target divided by the current target.
As the current target goes down, it becomes harder to generate blocks. The current target is the denominator of the difficulty equation, so as current target goes down, "difficulty" goes up.
Make sense?
Here's the maximum target:
0x00000000FFFF0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
A maximum target means a minimum difficulty, because the higher the target, the more hashes are less than that target.
The difficulty is the maximum target divided by the current target.
As the current target goes down, it becomes harder to generate blocks. The current target is the denominator of the difficulty equation, so as current target goes down, "difficulty" goes up.
Make sense?
Afaik the difficult number just means it's 19339258.272387 times harder to find a new block than the first one that was ever created.
I'm having a really hard time wrapping my head around what the difficulty number means. I don't understand how it can be so high, and how it can affect the target. I have read the wiki page, and it didn't really help.
I understand how a rudimentary POW algorithm works. In fact, I've even written one. It hashes data, and adds a number on the end, and hopes that the resulting hash is prefixed with a certain amount of 0's (or any special character). I know that a hash that has a prefix of 5 zeroes is significantly more difficult than a hash that hash a prefix of 1 zero. Each nonce has a lower probability of producing that hash, therefore it's more difficult.
So why isn't the difficulty just a whole integer? A difficulty of 1 means that the hash needs to have one zero. A difficulty of 2 means that the hash needs two zeroes in front of it. And so on.
What does 19339258.272387 mean? And how does it affect the miner's target? Sorry for my cluelessness.
I understand how a rudimentary POW algorithm works. In fact, I've even written one. It hashes data, and adds a number on the end, and hopes that the resulting hash is prefixed with a certain amount of 0's (or any special character). I know that a hash that has a prefix of 5 zeroes is significantly more difficult than a hash that hash a prefix of 1 zero. Each nonce has a lower probability of producing that hash, therefore it's more difficult.
So why isn't the difficulty just a whole integer? A difficulty of 1 means that the hash needs to have one zero. A difficulty of 2 means that the hash needs two zeroes in front of it. And so on.
What does 19339258.272387 mean? And how does it affect the miner's target? Sorry for my cluelessness.
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