Talk:Block

What if I'm 1% towards calculating a block and...?

"There's no such thing as being 1% towards solving a block. You don't make progress towards solving it."

Is this true? I don't know if there's a nonce which will solve any given block, but for a block that is solvable, it's possible to be 1% of the way towards finding it. Supposing it takes 10 million attempts to 'solve' a block, then after 100,000 attempts you could say you were 1% towards solving it. You're certainly closer to solving it than you were before those 100,000 failed attempts, aren't you? Dooglus 05:05, 15 January 2011 (GMT)

No one can know how many tries it will take to solve the block. After the fact you might say that at some point you had finished 1% of the necessary calculation for that block, but this was not really "progress".

If you go back in time after completing a block and don't generate for one of the days that you did originally, then you could actually end up getting the block sooner, as the work required is random. theymos 11:06, 15 January 2011 (GMT)