Author: Jakob Rönnbäck 2015-08-14 09:59:32
Published on: 2015-08-14T09:59:32+00:00
A Bitcoin enthusiast has suggested a new idea for adjusting the difficulty of individual blocks according to their size relative to the average block size of the previous difficulty period. The process involves calculating the average block size of the previous difficulty period and adjusting the difficulty when trying to find a new block by adding the relative size difference. For example, if a miner is trying to create a block that is half or double the size of the average block size, then the difficulty will be two times the normal one. If they are trying to make one that is 30% bigger or smaller, then the difficulty is 1.3 times the normal one. Currently, this would force miners to make blocks as close to 1MB as possible since the block reward is greater than fees. However, in the future, the block size should be adjusted to maximize the fees. The concept could be useful, but it remains to be seen whether it will gain traction or not. The suggestion was made on a mailing list, and the author acknowledges that they are not an expert in programming or Bitcoin.
Updated on: 2023-06-10T19:27:54.606514+00:00