What is mining difficulty
Mining difficulty is how hard Bitcoin makes the puzzle, so that new blocks stay near ten minutes apart. It is recalculated every 2,016 blocks, about two weeks, from how long the previous 2,016 blocks actually took.
The target
A valid block needs a SHA-256 result at or below a target. Difficulty is that target written as a single number. A higher difficulty means a smaller target, so fewer hashes qualify. The repeated attempt is the work in Bitcoin mining, and the thing it adds is a Bitcoin block. At one block every ten minutes, 2,016 blocks take 20,160 minutes, which is two weeks. If the last 2,016 blocks arrived faster than that, the next difficulty rises in proportion. If they arrived slower, it falls in proportion. One change cannot multiply or divide the difficulty by more than four.
When more hashrate joins, blocks tend to arrive faster until the next retarget, and then difficulty rises. When hashrate leaves, blocks slow down, and the next retarget makes the puzzle easier. A block that misses the target is rejected by the rest of the network. The adjustment is what keeps a busier network from producing a block every minute, and a quieter one from stretching toward an hour.
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What stays the same when you rent
Your rented hashrate is still the same count of attempts per second after a difficulty change. A higher difficulty means the whole network is doing more attempts for each block, so each TH is a smaller share of that work. A lower difficulty means each TH is a larger share. Either way it is a share of the work. A Bitcoin halving is a different event. Difficulty follows how much mining is going on. The halving cuts the new bitcoin in the block on a fixed count of blocks, whether the puzzle got harder or easier.
Infinity Hash points the rented TH at a mining pool, on SHA-256 ASIC miners. The electricity still comes out of the day's mined bitcoin when difficulty is high and when it is low. That rule is Bitcoin mining and electricity. Bitcoin mining rewards and payouts is the record of that day. Hosted hashrate and buying a miner is how you rent the TH without owning the ASIC.
Frequently asked questions
Every 2,016 blocks. At the ten-minute target, that is about two weeks.
Because the previous 2,016 blocks arrived faster than two weeks. More hashrate is the usual reason. The next retarget makes the target harder so the pace can return toward ten minutes.
No. One retarget can multiply or divide the difficulty by at most four.
The TH stays the number of attempts you rented. Each of those attempts is a smaller or larger share of the network, depending on which way difficulty moved.
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The latest Bitcoin miners
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