<p>Primecoin mining is doubly competitive (in the sense you described). In fact, the amount you will mine with given power is inversely proportional to the <em>cube</em> of the total network compute power.</p>

<p>As in Bitcoin, a difficulty parameter adjusts based on the mining rate to achieve a desired block frequency. Not only that, but the mint rate is inversely proportional to the (square of the) difficulty. Unlike Bitcoin which has a fixed schedule, which at worst can be slightly accelerated with increasing mining power, in Primecoin the total number of coins that will ever be generated will decrease with increasing competition.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-05T12:29:47.003Z
Can you explain how the minting algorithm works a bit more please?
Shamoon
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-09T09:28:19.183Z
@Shamoon: You mean the part where the greater the difficulty, the less the amount minted per block? I think it's simply that in each block, the new generated coins are defined as constant / difficulty ^ 2.
Meni Rosenfeld
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-02T21:23:29.027Z
2013-11-05T11:59:23.630Z
2013-11-05T11:59:23.630Z
Meni Rosenfeld
<p>Meaning, if more people mine Primecoin, does it get harder to mine? From what I understand, it shouldn't, but I want to be sure.</p>

<primecoin>
Is Primecoin mining competitive?
Shamoon
# Is Primecoin mining competitive?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-11-02)

Meaning, if more people mine Primecoin, does it get harder to mine? From what I understand, it shouldn't, but I want to be sure.

**Tags:** primecoin


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2013-11-02. Score: 6 | Accepted answer

Primecoin mining is doubly competitive (in the sense you described). In fact, the amount you will mine with given power is inversely proportional to the *cube* of the total network compute power.

As in Bitcoin, a difficulty parameter adjusts based on the mining rate to achieve a desired block frequency. Not only that, but the mint rate is inversely proportional to the (square of the) difficulty. Unlike Bitcoin which has a fixed schedule, which at worst can be slightly accelerated with increasing mining power, in Primecoin the total number of coins that will ever be generated will decrease with increasing competition.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Can you explain how the minting algorithm works a bit more please?  
> **username_1**: @username_0: You mean the part where the greater the difficulty, the less the amount minted per block? I think it's simply that in each block, the new generated coins are defined as constant / difficulty ^ 2.  

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