Understanding Mining Difficulty and Share Calculations
Introduction
Cryptocurrency mining involves solving complex cryptographic puzzles. The success of mining operations relies heavily on understanding key metrics such as hashrate, network difficulty, and shares. This article breaks down these concepts, explaining their relevance and how they interplay in determining a miner's chances of successfully mining a block.
Key Metrics
- Hashrate: A measure of computational power per second used when mining. Expressed in terms such as TH/s (terahashes per second).
- Network Difficulty: Indicates how hard it is to find a valid block on the blockchain. Adjusted periodically to maintain a consistent block discovery rate.
- Shares: Partial solutions to the mining puzzle. Each share has a difficulty value reflecting the computational effort required to find it.
- Best Share Ever: The highest difficulty share found by a miner. Represents the miner's most successful attempt.
Example Data
{
"hashrate1m": "7.67T",
"hashrate5m": "7.8T",
"hashrate1hr": "7.99T",
"hashrate1d": "2.52T",
"hashrate7d": "814G",
"lastshare": 1722874113,
"workers": 3,
"shares": 495773017,
"bestshare": 160375623.3883332,
"bestever": 803828087,
"authorised": 1720173810,
"worker": [
{
"workername": "worker1",
"hashrate1m": "4.47T",
"hashrate5m": "3.96T",
"hashrate1hr": "4.02T",
"hashrate1d": "1.28T",
"hashrate7d": "213G",
"lastshare": 1722874113,
"shares": 30852384,
"bestshare": 160375623.3883332,
"bestever": 160375623
},
{
"workername": "worker2",
"hashrate1m": "3.45T",
"hashrate5m": "3.9T",
"hashrate1hr": "3.97T",
"hashrate1d": "1.24T",
"hashrate7d": "207G",
"lastshare": 1722874111,
"shares": 29891430,
"bestshare": 30151439.59788018,
"bestever": 30151439
}
]
}
Calculating Your Chances of Hitting a Block
Provided Data:
- Your hashrate (H_user): 7.67 TH/s (7.67 × 10¹² H/s)
- Total network hashrate (H_network): 764.37 EH/s (764.37 × 10¹⁸ H/s)
- Network difficulty (D_network): 92T (92 × 10¹²)
Steps to Calculate Probability
- Convert Units:
- Your hashrate: \( 7.67 \times 10^{12} \text{ H/s} \)
- Network hashrate: \( 764.37 \times 10^{18} \text{ H/s} \)
- Probability Per Second:
\( P_{\text{block}} = \frac{H_{\text{user}}}{H_{\text{network}}} = \frac{7.67 \times 10^{12}}{764.37 \times 10^{18}} \)
- Simplify:
\( P_{\text{block}} = \frac{7.67}{764.37 \times 10^6} = \frac{7.67}{764,370,000} \)
- Calculate:
\( P_{\text{block}} \approx 1.003 \times 10^{-8} \)
This means your chance of finding a block in one second is approximately \( 1.003 \times 10^{-8} \), or 0.000001003%.
Expected Time to Find a Block
- Expected Time (in seconds):
\( \text{Expected Time} = \frac{1}{P_{\text{block}}} \approx \frac{1}{1.003 \times 10^{-8}} \approx 99,700,000 \text{ seconds} \)
- Convert to Days:
\( \text{Expected Time (in days)} = \frac{99,700,000}{60 \times 60 \times 24} \approx 1153 \text{ days} \)
Understanding the Relation Between Best Share Ever and Actual Difficulty
Simple Explanation
Imagine you have a big box of colorful balls. Each ball has a number on it, and your job is to find the ball with the highest number.
- Your Best Ball: The ball with the biggest number you've ever found is your "best ball ever."
- All the Balls: There are millions of balls in the box, some with high numbers, and many with lower numbers. The higher the number, the harder it is to find that ball.
Your "best share ever" is like finding a ball with a very high number. The network difficulty is the number you need to beat to win a prize (find a block). The difficulty of each share you find is random.
Technical Explanation
- Network Difficulty (D_network): A value indicating how hard it is to find a valid block.
- Best Share Ever: The highest difficulty share your miner has found.
Relation Between Best Share Ever and Actual Difficulty
To find a block, you need a share that meets or exceeds the network difficulty. Higher hashrates mean more shares submitted, increasing the chances of finding high-difficulty shares.
Example
If the network difficulty is 92T and your "best share ever" is 160M, it shows:
- The highest difficulty share you've found is 160M.
- To find a block, you need a share with a difficulty of at least 92T.
Conclusion
Understanding mining metrics like hashrate, shares, and difficulty is crucial for evaluating the performance of your mining operation. While the difficulty of individual shares is random, having better equipment increases your chances of finding higher-difficulty shares, ultimately improving your likelihood of mining a block.