Quote from: cverity on August 21, 2013, 10:16:58 PM

Because I can't resist the prospect of getting flamed, here is my analogy.

A guy writes down a number from 1-100 on the back of a postcard. You guess what that number is, and if you choose the correct number, you win. You keep guessing as fast as you can.

Every 30 seconds, the guy tears up the postcard and creates another one with a new number.

Can we agree that your previous guesses have no bearing on your chances of choosing the correct number now? Same when a block changes.

Expanding the analogy to include difficulty makes no difference. You now need to choose a number from 1-500, so it's going to take you longer to find a correct answer. But when the guy tears up the postcard and writes down a new number, your previous guesses does not effect your new guesses.

BTW: I am all for lowering difficulty to reduce *variance*, and I'm sure there is some flaw in that analogy, so flame away

AFAIK, there is not SET ANSWER for a block. You solve shares for the WHOLE NETWORK, and if you solve the block, it gets attributed to the pool. Blocks aren't given a block to play with and hash until a given share is right. I could be wrong, but I believe this is the proper explanation.

If the above explanation is correct, then the correct analogy would be someone taking 50 pieces of paper, and on each 50 pieces, there is a number between 1-512. Those 50 pieces of paper are not assigned to anyone. Pools share all their worker's shares, and if someone from that pool hits a number from the 50 pieces, they get paid. Pieces of paper aren't given to pools until someone guesses the number on it.

I could be horribly wrong though, but a pool operator told me this some time ago.