Clear DefinitionsTarget Hash
1 min read
Pronunciation
[tahr-git hash]
Analogy
Imagine miners are trying to roll a set of dice, and they need to get a total score that is *below* a certain number (the target hash value) to win. If the target is very low (e.g., 'roll below 5'), it's very difficult to win. If the target is higher (e.g., 'roll below 30'), it's easier. The network adjusts this target number to ensure someone wins (mines a block) at a consistent rate.
Definition
In Proof-of-Work (PoW) mining, the target hash is a specific value (or more accurately, a threshold) that a miner's computed block hash must be less than or equal to for the block to be considered valid and accepted by the network. This target is inversely related to the mining difficulty.
Key Points Intro
Key Points
A value that a block's hash must be numerically less than or equal to.
The lower the target hash value, the harder it is to find a valid block hash (higher difficulty).
The network adjusts this target periodically to maintain a consistent block production time (e.g., ~10 minutes for Bitcoin).
Represented as a large number, often in hexadecimal format, with many leading zeros for high difficulty.
Example
Technical Deep Dive
The target hash is derived from the current 'difficulty' metric of the network. The relationship is typically `target = max_target / difficulty`, where `max_target` is the highest possible target (lowest difficulty, e.g., a hash starting with `00000000ffff...`). As difficulty increases, the target value decreases, meaning the required block hash must have more leading zeros (be a smaller number), thus requiring more computational work to find.
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