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Topic
Board Beginners & Help
Re: Maximum number of Mhash to solve a block.
by
jg
on 07/07/2011, 19:37:20 UTC
Quote
I did not know that.  So if I understand you correctly, although every block has a solution, it is theoretically possible (Although insanely unlikely) that a solution will never be found?
Or does this mean that I can never be given my "Own" block to solve, and there will always be others working on it even if I am solo mining, thus it is guaranteed that the block will eventually be solved, but whoever solves the block gets all the bitcoins?

Now that we have broken the ground on how this works a bit, is there a place I can go and read a bit about this more technically, but written for the average joe to understand.  Basically I am not looking for the information on where a block comes from, and exactly how you go about solving it so that I could in theory, if I had nothing better to do with my time solve a block by hand. (Yes, I understand this is absurd, but if I know enough how to do it on paper, despite the fact it may take me the rest of my life to do but a single hash, or not, I will understand exactly how it works.)  Its more for curiosity.


You aren't given your "own" block to solve - it just comes down to who in the network is the first to solve the next block. Once someone solves it, the entire network moves on to solving the next block.

Also, solving a block by hand means that you need to calculate sha256(sha256(block of transactions + nonce)) where the hash conforms to the current difficulty... Keep in mind that all miners (combined) are currently trying 11197.84 GHashes/sec. It would take longer than the rest of your life to complete by hand.

This may help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin#Generation