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Title: Network hashrate vs network difficulty Post by: Berninni on April 03, 2014, 07:18:02 AM What is determining the network difficulty besides total network hashrate?
last month some currencies doubled difficulty while network hashrate did not change much. Title: Re: Network hashrate vs network difficulty Post by: TookDk on April 03, 2014, 07:31:37 AM I don't know the level of detail you are looking for.
The difficulty depend on the block generation speed. In that sense the difficulty only depend indirectly on the network hashrate. Each coin has target block generation interval (bitcoin is e.g. 10 min), so if blocks in average is generated faster than 10 min then will the difficulty go up, if blocks in average is generated slower than 10 min, then will the diff go down. There is a certain amount of hysteresis in the difficulty since it is an average function, if the network hash rate jumps up, eventually meaning that blocks will be generated faster - then will it take some time for the difficulty to follow. The block generation time also influence on the hysteresis time, there is more hysteresis at 10 min blocks than 1 min blocks. There is also a certain amount of "luck" involved, since finding a block is basically statistically determined based on the hashrate. |