What is network difficulty?
What network difficulty is, why it keeps moving, how it changes your share of the rewards, and how it differs from the share difficulty of your rig.
What is network difficulty?
Network difficulty is how hard it currently is to find a block. The network adjusts it automatically, like a self-adjusting dial.
The goal is that blocks keep arriving at roughly a target pace, however much mining power is online.
- If more miners join, difficulty rises.
- If miners leave, difficulty falls.
What does difficulty mean for your earnings?
Higher difficulty means each unit of your hashrate finds blocks less often. Hashrate is how much mining work your rig does per second.
Your share of the rewards depends on your hashrate compared with the whole network. It does not depend on the difficulty by itself.
When difficulty rises because others joined, your slice of the pie shrinks a little. When it falls, your slice grows.
How is it different from share difficulty?
Do not confuse network difficulty with the share difficulty the pool assigns your rig. They are different numbers doing different jobs.
- Network difficulty is what a real block must beat.
- Share difficulty is a much lower bar the pool sets for each rig. It keeps your shares arriving at a steady pace, purely to measure your contribution.
Why does it change your calculator results?
Difficulty sets how often blocks are found, so it is a key input to any earnings estimate.
That is why a mining calculator reading can change from day to day, even if your hashrate stays the same. The network moved, not your rig.