Why does the difficulty change every 2016 blocks but not 2000 or 2100?

findftp

legendary

Activity: 1022

Merit: 1008

Delusional crypto obsessionist

Quote from: cr1776 on October 31, 2016, 11:37:34 AM

Quote from: findftp on October 31, 2016, 10:17:09 AM

...
I mean, for me it would make some sense to make it sync with the block reward period which is 210000 blocks.
2016 is not a factor of 210000.

Was this done deliberately? Yes, of course it was, but why?
...
Why did Satoshi not sync this to the block reward period and use 2000 or 2100 blocks(which are both a factor of 210000), which 2000 as most obvious round number.

...

Regarding syncing with the block reward period, there was also some intent to avoid having both occur simultaneously to decrease the variability of having two events occur at the same block.

Sounds legit, thought of this also.

Then we can also completely ignore that this was my 2016th post... Got nothing to do with it... Wink

Edit,.. and my activity being exactly half of it, 1008... Huh

cr1776

legendary

Activity: 4228

Merit: 1313

Quote from: findftp on October 31, 2016, 10:17:09 AM

...
I mean, for me it would make some sense to make it sync with the block reward period which is 210000 blocks.
2016 is not a factor of 210000.

Was this done deliberately? Yes, of course it was, but why?
...
Why did Satoshi not sync this to the block reward period and use 2000 or 2100 blocks(which are both a factor of 210000), which 2000 as most obvious round number.

...

Regarding syncing with the block reward period, there was also some intent to avoid having both occur simultaneously to decrease the variability of having two events occur at the same block. It is almost always preferable to have one variable and everything else constant in a complex system.

achow101

staff

Activity: 3458

Merit: 6793

Just writing some code

Like literally every other number in Bitcoin, it is essentially arbitrarily chosen, not some conspiracy or reference to something.

The idea is to have the retarget every two weeks. In order to do that with 10 minute blocks, you take two weeks in minutes and divide by ten. That happens to be 20160 / 10 = 2016. Hence 2016 blocks.

findftp

legendary

Activity: 1022

Merit: 1008

Delusional crypto obsessionist

I know 2016 blocks is roughly two weeks, but why did satoshi chose this connection of the protocol to the 'real' world?
I mean, for me it would make some sense to make it sync with the block reward period which is 210000 blocks.
2016 is not a factor of 210000.

Was this done deliberately? Yes, of course it was, but why?
Was this number chosen as some sort of 1337 hint to this 2016 election year?

Why did Satoshi not sync this to the block reward period and use 2000 or 2100 blocks(which are both a factor of 210000), which 2000 as most obvious round number.

Since bitcoin is a global internet phenonemon it doesn't make sense to me to sync the difficulty adjustment with 2 earthly weeks.

Personally I stick with the 1337 explanation until I see another reasonable explanation.

Topic: Why does the difficulty change every 2016 blocks but not 2000 or 2100? (Read 671 times)