LOL, I think I am good for now. Thank you guys for all detailed explanations.

Pretty amazing how it all works together, and how well it is all thought through. As a software developer of many years, I can only appreciate the beauty of the thing.

Now, back to my Lucky Miner which is stuck at 246M difficulty, LOL

Oh, another but unrelated question. Maybe someone gives me an idea what's going on...

My Internet speed is 300 Mb/s download and 20 Mb/s upload (was 20/20 before the upgrade - see further below). A few months ago, I set up a node. Right off the bat, my router (or external network) would start freezing after a day or a few. Specifically, connection to router for all home devices is fine, but no traffic goes though (including to/from the node). Rebooting the router clears the problem - until next time - in a day or a few. I also discovered that there was no need to reboot the router. Unplugging coax cable for a few seconds does the trick, and everything goes back to normal in a few seconds.

Never happened before I set up my node. If I shutdown the node, everything is fine for days and days. Started the node - same issue.

Upgraded to the newest router from ISP - same issue. Asked my ISP if there was a quota for uploads. They said NO.

Via experimentation, I determined that limiting upload to 5GB/day solves the problem - runs smoothly for weeks with no issues.

Any ideas?