In CGMiner, what does "Best Share" mean?

[timk225]

I have CGMiner 3.3.0 mining Litecoin for me on several PCs.

In the CGMiner display, it'll show the current coin difficulty (67.6 Million is how it shows LTC right now, although you divide that by 65536 to get the actual difficulty of 1031 at this moment).

And under Best Share, it says my best is 5.23 Million.

So what does that mean?  The best hash one of my GPUs on that PC made was roughly 1/12 of a complete valid hash?  What if my Best Share was 1 million or 10 million?  Would one of my hashes be closer to a correct answer if a higher number is showing in Best Share?

[1714902290]

1714902290

[timk225]

What the hell -- no one knows?

[Xyver]

I think that if its higher then a certain number, then it means that you found a block.

But I don't know for sure.

[qnfauf]

Best share is the highest difficulty share you have found.

The block difficulty is the minimum difficulty required for solving the block.

If your best share's difficulty is higher than the block difficulty, it means that you have found at least one block. Otherwise, all of your shares were not enough to solve a block.

In terms of your income, unless your pool rewards block finders more than others (which is very rarely the case), it does not matter to you at all.

Also, yes, 10 mil. will be "closer" to solving the block than 1 mil., but you either solve a block or you don't. So "closer" doesn't mean anything.

[odolvlobo]

In the CGMiner display, it'll show the current coin difficulty (67.6 Million is how it shows LTC right now, although you divide that by 65536 to get the actual difficulty of 1031 at this moment).
And under Best Share, it says my best is 5.23 Million.
So what does that mean?  The best hash one of my GPUs on that PC made was roughly 1/12 of a complete valid hash?  What if my Best Share was 1 million or 10 million?  Would one of my hashes be closer to a correct answer if a higher number is showing in Best Share?

The Best Share shows the difficulty value corresponding to the lowest hash value that your miner has computed so far.

The concept is simple, but it is difficult to explain. The difficulty determines the highest hash value that can solve a block. If your miner computes a hash value that is lower than that maximum, then you have solved a block.

Keep in mind that there is some ambiguity in the term "difficulty". Generally, when people refer to the difficulty, they are referring to the value that determines the maximum hash value that will solve a block. However, when someone refers to the difficulty of a particular block, they really mean the difficulty value that corresponds to the block's hash value . In other words, if a block's difficulty is X, then it has a hash value that would have solved the block the difficulty were X. A block doesn't really have a difficulty, but sometimes it is useful to refer to the hash value in terms of difficulty.

If your Best Share is more than the current difficulty, it means that you have solved at least one block.
If your Best Share is more than the current share difficulty, it means that you have gotten at least one share.

[evansearle42]

In the CGMiner display, it'll show the current coin difficulty (67.6 Million is how it shows LTC right now, although you divide that by 65536 to get the actual difficulty of 1031 at this moment).
And under Best Share, it says my best is 5.23 Million.
So what does that mean?  The best hash one of my GPUs on that PC made was roughly 1/12 of a complete valid hash?  What if my Best Share was 1 million or 10 million?  Would one of my hashes be closer to a correct answer if a higher number is showing in Best Share?

The Best Share shows the difficulty value corresponding to the lowest hash value that your miner has computed so far.

The concept is simple, but it is difficult to explain. The difficulty determines the highest hash value that can solve a block. If your miner computes a hash value that is lower than that maximum, then you have solved a block.

Keep in mind that there is some ambiguity in the term "difficulty". Generally, when people refer to the difficulty, they are referring to the value that determines the maximum hash value that will solve a block. However, when someone refers to the difficulty of a particular block, they really mean the difficulty value that corresponds to the block's hash value . In other words, if a block's difficulty is X, then it has a hash value that would have solved the block the difficulty were X. A block doesn't really have a difficulty, but sometimes it is useful to refer to the hash value in terms of difficulty.

If your Best Share is more than the current difficulty, it means that you have solved at least one block.
If your Best Share is more than the current share difficulty, it means that you have gotten at least one share.

Do you mean then if Best Share is more than the block, it has chances to solve few block at a time?

[os2sam]

If the best share is equal or greater than the current difficulty then it solved a block.

[atlasorion]

Best share is the highest difficulty share you have found.

The block difficulty is the minimum difficulty required for solving the block.

If your best share's difficulty is higher than the block difficulty, it means that you have found at least one block. Otherwise, all of your shares were not enough to solve a block.

In terms of your income, unless your pool rewards block finders more than others (which is very rarely the case), it does not matter to you at all.

Also, yes, 10 mil. will be "closer" to solving the block than 1 mil., but you either solve a block or you don't. So "closer" doesn't mean anything.

this makes less than 0 sense to me.  Where can I find the displayed value of the block difficulty?  Is it on cgminer somewhere?  I see "Block: 734jadkdlelrjljladflasjkdflasjkfl... Diff: 13" while mining Netcoins. According to all of your guy's posts, and the way you've all explained it, I'm finding every single block ever invented. And I have never found a block, EVER, according to my pool.

I get "accepted blahblahblah diff 278/85" "accepted blahblahblah diff 2.12k/85" and I'm not finding shlt, apparently they're all found by asians with exponential hash rates.

I'm trying to wrap my head around this whole share concept, but there tons of amateur, contradictory info out there. I need to know where I can view the info to help me figure this out for myself, WHERE is the block difficutly displayed?

[odolvlobo]

In your example, "accepted blahblahblah diff 2.12k/85", your miner generated a hash that corresponds to a difficulty value of 2120 (approximately), which is more than the pool's difficulty level set at 85. Every time you generate a hash whose corresponding difficulty value exceeds the pool's difficulty you get a share (or more precisely, 85 shares). If anyone in the pool generates a hash whose corresponding difficulty value exceeds the actual difficulty (1789546951), then the pool has solved a block.

The difficulty can be found here: bitcoincharts.com. The current value is 1789546951, though it will change in less than a day.

[waltsmith]

So, can anyone tell me what a "Best share" of 7G is equivalent too? I've seen 635k, and I know that that is 635,000 difficulty for that share, and I've seen 219M, and I've assumed that is equivalent to 219,000,000.

But, earlier I solved a block of doge at netcode and my share was 7G, what the hell is that? I would assume that 7B would be 7 billion, although I've never seen a share that high before today, or am I wrong?

waltsmith

[Spoetnik]

maybe ask in the mining section ? the correct people will be checking over there eh..

topic from Oct 2013 lol

[waltsmith]

maybe ask in the mining section ? the correct people will be checking over there eh..

topic from Oct 2013 lol

Yeah, I asked there too, but you never know, lol. Anyways, some knowledgeable folks answered the question very nicely. It seems M is not million, but mega, so G is giga.
Sometimes, previous misconceptions keep us from seeing the truth no matter how plain and simple. lol.

waltsmith

[timk225]

One thing I think could be improved in CGminer is how it announces you found a block.  If you are looking at the screen at the time it find one, it'll print "BLOCK!!!" at the end of the Accepted line and its data, but then it scrolls up and the Best Share is the only remaining sign of finding a block.

When it finds a block, it should play maybe 15 seconds of the song "We're in the money" or something like that, and/or flash the screen different colors.