Difficulty
Contents
Difficulty
Definition
The difficulty of the last block in the considered time period. Difficulty represents how hard it is to find a hash that meets the protocol-designated requirement (i.e., the difficulty of finding a new block) that day. The requirement is unique to each applicable cryptocurrency protocol. Difficulty is adjusted periodically by the protocol as a function of how much hashing power is being deployed by miners.
Name | MetricID | Unit | Interval |
---|---|---|---|
Difficulty | DiffLast | Dimensionless | 1 day, 1 hour |
Details
This metric is not comparable across all chains as its value is dependent on the hashing function used by each chain.
Chart
Chart
Asset-Specific Details
This metric is only available for PoW chains.
Examples
Bitcoin’s mining difficulty is a network-determined parameter that automatically adjusts roughly every 2 weeks (2,016 Bitcoin blocks) to target a 10-minute block interval. To maintain this frequency, the algorithm steps in and increases or decreases the difficulty of mining Bitcoin depending on the mining activity on the network. When China banned BTC mining in Q2 of 2021, we saw a drop in mining activity on the network, therefore the difficulty dropped as well.
Release History
Released in the 4.2 release of NDP
Interpretation
Difficulty is a measure of how difficult it is to mine a block. The greater the difficulty, the more computational power is needed to mine a block.
Availability for Assets
Mean Difficulty
Definition
The mean difficulty of finding a hash that meets the protocol-designated requirement (i.e., the difficulty of finding a new block) that day. The requirement is unique to each applicable cryptocurrency protocol. Difficulty is adjusted periodically by the protocol as a function of how much hashing power is being deployed by miners.
Name | MetricID | Unit | Interval |
---|---|---|---|
Mean Difficulty | DiffMean | Dimensionless | 1 day |
Details
This metric is not comparable across all chains as its value is dependent on the hashing function used by each chain.
Chart
Examples
When the majority of the Bitcoin blocks are produced at 10 minutes, the difficulty adjustments will not be significant. This could indicate new miners are not getting online and existing ones are not shutting off their operations.
Asset-Specific Details
This metric is only available for PoW chains.
Interpretation
This measures how difficult and time consuming it is to find the right hash for each block
Release History
Released in the 1.0 release of NDP
Availability for Assets
API Endpoints
metrics can be accessed using these endpoints:
timeseries/asset-metrics
and by passing in the metric ID's Diff*
in the metrics
parameter.
Last updated