Bitcoin Forum

Other => Beginners & Help => Topic started by: Ritual on March 12, 2014, 03:03:26 PM



Title: Question about difficulty calculators
Post by: Ritual on March 12, 2014, 03:03:26 PM
Hi all,

I've been trying to figure out how difficulty calculators work. What I am trying to determine is if I can use any calculator based on the correct algorithm for different coins. e.g. using a standard Litecoin calculator for another Scrypt coin but adjusting the difficulty to match the coin I want to know about. Or does block time come into this as well?

Thanks,

Rit.


Title: Re: Question about difficulty calculators
Post by: tkbx on March 12, 2014, 06:10:27 PM
Hi all,

I've been trying to figure out how difficulty calculators work. What I am trying to determine is if I can use any calculator based on the correct algorithm for different coins. e.g. using a standard Litecoin calculator for another Scrypt coin but adjusting the difficulty to match the coin I want to know about. Or does block time come into this as well?

Thanks,

Rit.
I believe as long as you can set a custom difficulty, it will work for all script coins. Difficulty is how the block time is set, the network just sets a higher difficulty for higher block time. Whether it's Litecoin, Dogecoin, or any other scrypt coin, difficulty of x will always take an average of y minutes for the network to process a block.


Title: Re: Question about difficulty calculators
Post by: Ritual on March 12, 2014, 06:11:28 PM
Hi all,

I've been trying to figure out how difficulty calculators work. What I am trying to determine is if I can use any calculator based on the correct algorithm for different coins. e.g. using a standard Litecoin calculator for another Scrypt coin but adjusting the difficulty to match the coin I want to know about. Or does block time come into this as well?

Thanks,

Rit.
I believe as long as you can set a custom difficulty, it will work for all script coins. Difficulty is how the block time is set, the network just sets a higher difficulty for higher block time. Whether it's Litecoin, Dogecoin, or any other scrypt coin, difficulty of x will always take an average of y minutes for the network to process a block.

Cool, that's what I thought, was just not sure if I had it correct. Thanks very much for information!

Rit.


Title: Re: Question about difficulty calculators
Post by: odolvlobo on March 13, 2014, 07:31:54 AM
As long as the coin's difficulty calculation is the same as Bitcoin's, then it will work as long as you use the correct block reward and block interval in the calculation. Also, the difficulty changes for alt coins are not the same as Bitcoin's and not nearly as consistent, so getting an accurate result will be difficult.