<blockquote>
  <p>So basically, am I right in saying that the difficulty is calculated from the target, and not the other way around?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>That is correct. Difficulty is just a concept introduced to make the target value easy to represent for humans.  It has no meaning internally.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-01-19T15:30:46.897Z
2017-01-19T15:30:46.897Z
Pieter Wuille
<p>After every 2016 blocks, the <code>target</code> moves up or down to try and create an average of 10 minutes between blocks.</p>

<p>Up until now, I've believed that it's the <code>difficulty</code> that drives this change, as though the difficulty is stored on disk somewhere, and the <code>target</code> is calculated from this key metric.</p>

<p>However, the only changes I see being stored on disk and shared between nodes is the <code>target</code> (via the <code>bits</code> field in the block header). This leads me to believe that the <code>difficulty</code> is merely a representation of the changing targets, and it's not the actual source of the target values.</p>

<p>So basically, <strong>am I right in saying that the difficulty is calculated <em>from</em> the target, and not the other way around?</strong></p>

<p>e.g: <code>bits</code> -> <code>target</code> -> <code>difficulty</code>?</p>

<difficulty>
Is the target the source of the difficulty?
inersha
# Is the target the source of the difficulty?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-01-19)

After every 2016 blocks, the `target` moves up or down to try and create an average of 10 minutes between blocks.

Up until now, I've believed that it's the `difficulty` that drives this change, as though the difficulty is stored on disk somewhere, and the `target` is calculated from this key metric.

However, the only changes I see being stored on disk and shared between nodes is the `target` (via the `bits` field in the block header). This leads me to believe that the `difficulty` is merely a representation of the changing targets, and it's not the actual source of the target values.

So basically, **am I right in saying that the difficulty is calculated *from* the target, and not the other way around?**

e.g: `bits` -> `target` -> `difficulty`?

**Tags:** difficulty


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2017-01-19. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

> So basically, am I right in saying that the difficulty is calculated from the target, and not the other way around?

That is correct. Difficulty is just a concept introduced to make the target value easy to represent for humans. It has no meaning internally.


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