Alt coins difficulty question
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Hi guys,
looking at the whole range of alt coins out there, there is a huge range in difficulty.
Obviously bitcoin is way up there at 908,350,862.4370.
LTC at 2,926.5097, FTC currently at 177.2863, lucky at 12.7116 etc.
I’m assuming there is technically no max for these difficulty levels, as more hash power = higher difficulty to keep the amount of coins flowing out pretty consistent…correct?
But are all difficulties equal? I know for example if two alt coins are at say a level 5 of difficulty, you might get a different number of coins because the max total amount to be coins to be mined for one coins might be substantially different from another. say 21 million va 88 million…
Basically what I’m trying to say is…say two coins launched at the same time, were mined to the same level at the same speed, would the two coins have the same difficulty rating? or could one have a different scale at sit at 5, while another reads 50?.
So these new coins with ratings of 0.2 - 8 or so, have the same scale as lite and feather?
Damm, this is tricky to explain, I hope someone understands! lol
Many thanks for your time,
Matt -
You’ve got the facts straight. Let me see if I can push your thinking a little further along.
Coins have different difficulty adjustment algorithms. Feathercoin in particular has been tested and tested and tested in simulations in order to find just the right mix, and so far the change has been totally fantastic.
So while difficulty is difficulty, and coin generation rate is coin generation rate, in a one-to-one comparison over time these things still won’t be equal, because they’ll respond to hash rates at the same time in different ways, leading to a solution which is non-deterministic across coins, because one coin will adjust it’s difficulty faster, or slower, or with a cap/floor on change, or using a moving window average, depending on the coin. So even if the same hash-power played out the same accross a coin with the same starting difficulty and the same coin generation rate, it’s difficulty could still be different if it’s difficulty adjustment solution is different.
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Awesome, many thanks for the reply Kevlar. +1!
I had to read a couple of times to fully absorb lol. Cheers :)