<p>The Nonce value does not itself indicate all tries. The resolution of Nonce is only 4 bytes. Every time Nonce gets up to 4,294,967,295(10) it resets and starts again from zero, updating the extraNonce and continuing.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><a href="http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block_hashing_algorithm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block_hashing_algorithm</a><br>
  'Whenever Nonce overflows (which it does frequently), the extraNonce portion of the generation transaction is incremented, which changes the Merkle root.' </p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-28T03:11:53.923Z
2018-01-28T03:11:53.923Z
Willtech
<p>The entire purpose of proof-of-work mining is to force participants to spin their wheels doing busywork.  It takes about 10 minutes to mine a block because the difficulty automatically changes so that it <em>always</em> takes about 10 minutes to mine a block.  When more hashing power is added to the network, the difficulty increases to accommodate.  The time it takes to mine a block is intentionally set to 10 minutes.</p>

<p>You should read <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/148/24974">What exactly is Mining?</a> for clarification.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-27T19:53:20.303Z
I Understand what mining is, however what I don't Understand is 1 Billion Nonce should take 1/5 th of a second for an average computer to mine, then why 10 minutes
Rishi Kataria
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-27T20:37:18.910Z
Because that nonce probably only worked after rearranging the transactions several times.
Jestin
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-27T21:18:53.940Z
There's two nonces, the OP is only looking at the first.
Claris
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-27T19:48:29.867Z
2018-01-27T19:48:29.867Z
Jestin
<p>I was wondering that a block (Here's a <a href="https://blockchain.info/block/00000000000000000008b26b9ddc6bf554f58957eeba185d0a20e5b4deed3c41" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Block #506398</a>)</p>

<p>It's nonce is 1,229,291,212 (A little over a billion), Then why does it take so long to mine a block because my system alone can do about 500 GH/s (500,000,000,000 Hashs per second), Which is very little in comparison to what an ASICs can do.</p>

<p>Then why does it take so long to mine a Block??</p>

<p>Thanks for your help!!</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-27T21:18:31.333Z
Your system can not do 500GH/s.
Claris
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-28T14:56:41.490Z
Related: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/855/5406
Murch
<difficulty><block-interval>
Why does bitcoin mining take so long?
Rishi Kataria
# Why does bitcoin mining take so long?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-01-27)

I was wondering that a block (Here's a [Block #506398](https://blockchain.info/block/00000000000000000008b26b9ddc6bf554f58957eeba185d0a20e5b4deed3c41))

It's nonce is 1,229,291,212 (A little over a billion), Then why does it take so long to mine a block because my system alone can do about 500 GH/s (500,000,000,000 Hashs per second), Which is very little in comparison to what an ASICs can do.

Then why does it take so long to mine a Block??

Thanks for your help!!

**Tags:** difficulty, block-interval

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Your system can not do 500GH/s.  
> **username_2**: Related: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/855/5406  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2018-01-28. Score: 0 | Accepted answer

The Nonce value does not itself indicate all tries. The resolution of Nonce is only 4 bytes. Every time Nonce gets up to 4,294,967,295(10) it resets and starts again from zero, updating the extraNonce and continuing.

> <http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block_hashing_algorithm>  
> 'Whenever Nonce overflows (which it does frequently), the extraNonce portion of the generation transaction is incremented, which changes the Merkle root.'


---

### Answer by username_4 on 2018-01-27. Score: 0

The entire purpose of proof-of-work mining is to force participants to spin their wheels doing busywork. It takes about 10 minutes to mine a block because the difficulty automatically changes so that it *always* takes about 10 minutes to mine a block. When more hashing power is added to the network, the difficulty increases to accommodate. The time it takes to mine a block is intentionally set to 10 minutes.

You should read [What exactly is Mining?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/148/24974) for clarification.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I Understand what mining is, however what I don't Understand is 1 Billion Nonce should take 1/5 th of a second for an average computer to mine, then why 10 minutes  
> **username_4**: Because that nonce probably only worked after rearranging the transactions several times.  
> **username_1**: There's two nonces, the OP is only looking at the first.  

---

