rich1.0npub164d4d9z50r3uzguvlmvwdsevs5t7w6y5hjfz72wkafp0wn72nvfq5znx9phttps://nostr.ae/npub164d4d9z50r3uzguvlmvwdsevs5t7w6y5hjfz72wkafp0wn72nvfq5znx9pnjumphttps://nostr.ae📅 Original date posted:2017-11-02 📝 Original message:Bitcoin cash will hard fork on Nov 13 to implement a new difficulty algorithm. Bitcoin itself might need to hard fork to employ a similar algorithm. It's about as good as they come because it followed the "simplest is best" route. Their averaging window is probably significantly too long (N=144). It's: next_D = sum (past 144 D's) * T / sum(past 144 solvetimes) They correctly did not use max(timestamp) - min(timestamp) in the denominator like others do. They've written the code and they're about to use it live, so Bitcoin will have a clear, simple, and tested path if it suddenly needs to hard fork due to having 20x delays for the next 2000 blocks (taking it a year to get unstuck). Details on it and the decision process: https://www.bitcoinabc.org/november It uses a nice median of 3 for the beginning and end of the window to help alleviate bad timestamp problems. It's nice, helps a little, but will also slow its response by 1 block. They also have 2x and 1/2 limits on the adjustment per block, which is a lot more than they will ever need. I recommend bitcoin consider using it and making it N=50 instead of 144. I have seen that any attempts to modify the above with things like a low pass filter, starting the window at MTP, or preventing negative timestamps will only reduce its effectiveness. Bitcoin's +12 and -6 limits on the timestamps are sufficient and well chosen, although something a bit smaller than the +12 might have been better. One of the contenders to the above is new and actually better, devised by Degnr8 and they call it D622 or wt-144.It's a little better than they realize. It's the only real improvement in difficulty algorithms since the rolling average. It gives a linearly higher weight to the more recent timestamps. Otherwise it is the same. Others have probably come across it, but there is too much noise in difficulty algorithms to find the good ones. # Degnr8's D622 difficulty algorithm # T=TargetTime, S=Solvetime # modified by zawy for i = 1 to N (from oldest to most recent block) t += T[i] / D[i] * i j += i next i next_D = j / t * T I believe any modification to the above strict mathematical weighted average will reduce it's effectiveness. It does not oscillate anymore than regular algos and rises faster and drops faster, when needed.