I thought the number of zeros is some indication of how close we are to cracking a block.  doesn't it correlate to how much work has been done?  So for simplicity sake, and maybe this is where it goes to $hit, lets say we are working on block 1.  and the desire number of zeros is 10.  Weve hashed a while and we are up to 9 zeros.  Some other pool has been hashing and they get a working hash with 10 zeros before us.  Now all the work we did to get the 9 zeros is out the door.  However, if the other pool didn't exist, is it not the case, that there is less incremental work from 9 to 10 zeros, then from starting back at zero zeros?


I'll go back to the dice and see if I can finagle it in my head....