<p>The most important consequence:</p>

<p>It would increase the orphan rate, which gives big miners more chance to mine (because they run their own ISP, while a miner with 0.1% hashrate of the network probably doesn't), and this leads to centralization.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-17T10:49:29.353Z
2017-12-17T10:49:29.353Z
MCCCS
<p>1) More transactions can be handled in a shorter time.</p>

<p>2) The difficulty would decrease (as you said).</p>

<p>3) More blocks are created -> the size of the blockchain grows faster.</p>

<p>4) The whole 21,000,000 are available earlier because someone would get 12.5 BTC each 5 minutes instead of 10 minutes.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-17T10:18:17.850Z
What about the 51% attack?
Ortomala Lokni
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-17T10:28:46.370Z
51% attack means that one mining company has more than 50% of the whole hashing power, but the percental hashing-power per company stays the same if you decrease the difficulty. So I don't see the danger of a 51% attack in this szenario.
hardfork
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-17T10:17:02.097Z
2017-12-17T10:38:39.643Z
2017-12-17T10:38:39.643Z
hardfork
<p>The difficulty is adjusted such that a block is generated every 10 minutes.</p>

<p>What would be the consequences to lower the difficulty such that a block is generated every 5 minutes?</p>

<difficulty>
What would be the consequences to lower the difficulty such that a block is generated every 5 minutes?
Ortomala Lokni
# What would be the consequences to lower the difficulty such that a block is generated every 5 minutes?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-12-17)

The difficulty is adjusted such that a block is generated every 10 minutes.

What would be the consequences to lower the difficulty such that a block is generated every 5 minutes?

**Tags:** difficulty


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2017-12-17. Score: 2

The most important consequence:

It would increase the orphan rate, which gives big miners more chance to mine (because they run their own ISP, while a miner with 0.1% hashrate of the network probably doesn't), and this leads to centralization.


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### Answer by username_2 on 2017-12-17. Score: 1

1) More transactions can be handled in a shorter time.

2) The difficulty would decrease (as you said).

3) More blocks are created -> the size of the blockchain grows faster.

4) The whole 21,000,000 are available earlier because someone would get 12.5 BTC each 5 minutes instead of 10 minutes.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: What about the 51% attack?  
> **username_2**: 51% attack means that one mining company has more than 50% of the whole hashing power, but the percental hashing-power per company stays the same if you decrease the difficulty. So I don't see the danger of a 51% attack in this szenario.  

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