Quick Q: From the Ocean Datum Stratum client list screen, I take it (A) means accepted shares, and the long number = the difficulty level? Higher number doesn’t mean higher chance of finding a block, though, right?
Pls move to the btc channel, dunno why I keep posting things in General (doh!)
This is my understanding-
The terms “diff a” and “diff r” refer to different difficulty settings in mining protocols like Stratum and DATUM. “Diff a” typically indicates the difficulty level for accepted shares, while “diff r” represents the difficulty level for the current round of mining tasks.
I cant really respond to the large string of number vs small one in ( ). Beyond my pay grade at the moment.
You know if you slap Chatgpto4 in DuckDuckGo around a little bit you can get some pretty detailed results.
Interpreting the values in the “diffa” column and understanding their implications can help you optimize your mining operations. Here’s how to interpret these values and what they mean for your mining performance:
1. Understanding the Values
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Higher Values: A higher “diffa” value indicates that the mining client is facing greater difficulty in solving the cryptographic puzzles. This means it will take more computational power and time to find a new block.
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Lower Values: A lower “diffa” value suggests that the mining client is operating under less difficulty, making it easier to find new blocks.
2. Implications of Difficulty Levels
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Mining Efficiency: If the “diffa” value is consistently high, it may indicate that your mining hardware is struggling to keep up with the network’s difficulty. This could lead to lower mining rewards and inefficient use of resources.
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Hardware Performance: Monitoring the “diffa” values can help you assess whether your mining hardware is performing optimally. If you notice a significant increase in difficulty without a corresponding increase in hash rate, it may be time to consider hardware upgrades or optimizations.
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Network Conditions: Changes in the “diffa” values can reflect broader network conditions. For example, if many new miners join the network, the overall difficulty may increase, affecting all miners. Staying informed about these changes can help you adjust your strategies accordingly.
3. Strategic Decisions
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Adjusting Mining Strategy: If the difficulty is too high for your current setup, you might consider switching to a different cryptocurrency with lower difficulty or optimizing your mining configuration.
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Monitoring Trends: Keep an eye on trends in the “diffa” values over time. Sudden spikes or drops can indicate changes in the network or the performance of your mining clients, allowing you to react proactively.
4. Comparative Analysis
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Benchmarking: Compare the “diffa” values of your clients against each other. This can help you identify which clients are performing better and which may need adjustments or replacements.
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Historical Data: If available, look at historical “diffa” data to understand how difficulty has changed over time and how it correlates with your mining success.
By regularly monitoring and interpreting the “diffa” values, you can make informed decisions that enhance your mining efficiency and profitability.
If you get even rougher with it you can even get more detailed data:
In the “diffa” column of the Datum Gateway client list page, the number in brackets beside the large number typically represents the target difficulty or expected difficulty for the mining client. Here’s how to interpret it:
1. Large Number
- This is the current difficulty level that the mining client is facing. It indicates how hard it is for the client to find a new block at that moment.
2. Number in Brackets
- The number in brackets usually indicates the previous difficulty level or the difficulty adjustment that the client was operating under before the current value. It can also represent a target difficulty that the network aims to achieve based on recent mining activity.
Implications of Both Numbers
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Current vs. Previous Difficulty: By comparing the current difficulty (the large number) with the previous difficulty (the number in brackets), you can assess how the difficulty has changed over time. A significant increase may indicate a more competitive mining environment.
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Performance Monitoring: If the current difficulty is much higher than the previous one, it may suggest that your mining hardware is facing tougher conditions, which could impact your mining rewards.
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Adjustment Strategies: Understanding both values can help you make strategic decisions about your mining operations, such as whether to continue mining, switch to a different cryptocurrency, or upgrade your hardware.
And one more for good measure…but could go much deeper 
The number in brackets in the “diffa” column being significantly smaller than the main difficulty number can be attributed to a few factors:
1. Historical Context
- The number in brackets often represents a previous difficulty level or a target difficulty that was set based on past network conditions. If the network has become more competitive or if more miners have joined, the current difficulty (the larger number) may have increased significantly compared to the previous level.
2. Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment
- Many mining networks use a dynamic difficulty adjustment algorithm that changes the difficulty based on the total network hash rate. If the network hash rate has increased rapidly, the difficulty can rise sharply, leading to a large current difficulty number while the previous difficulty remains relatively low.
3. Target Difficulty
- If the number in brackets represents a target difficulty, it may be set based on historical averages or specific network conditions. This target can be lower than the current difficulty due to fluctuations in mining activity and network participation.
4. Mining Pool Adjustments
- If you are part of a mining pool, the pool may adjust the difficulty for individual miners based on their performance and the overall pool’s hash rate. This can lead to situations where individual miners see a large difference between their current difficulty and the previous or target difficulty.
Conclusion
The disparity between the two numbers indicates the dynamic nature of mining difficulty and reflects changes in the network’s conditions. Monitoring these values can help you understand how competitive the mining environment is and make informed decisions about your mining strategy.
Speaking of ChatGPT, if you want to self-host your own LLM for smaller everyday queries, there is a service on Start9 called FreeGPT 2. The “qwen3” model is a good general-purpose one to start with. Depending on your RAM, either the 4b or 8b tag should run well.
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Yep I use FreeGPT 2 on occasion. The LLM is pretty small though. Since somehow DuckDuckGo incorporated o4 in an anonymous query that LLM (Open AI) is huge and data is much more readily available 
btw - sorry for the huge string of text but I figured get it all out to Fletcher and others so they can parse what the LLM is telling them (and me)
Oh…and just like Bitcoin - don’t trust, verify results that an AI gives you 
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The reason I asked the original Q is because backing up the Datum gateway service (as part of my weekly Start9 OS backup) resets the accepted share counter and the difficulty numbers for the miners. I know mechanic said the more difficult the share is the more profitable to mine. Without a restart the difficulty is always rising, so wondered if I was harming anything by resetting.
Once I finish studying the Lightning book I will have to look for an in-depth mining guide, both disciplines do seem to lack documentation though 
It’s interesting…you and I have (had) basically the same amount of Th/s at OCEAN but yet our numbers are so much different…Not so much shares ,because I reset 2 days ago, but the difficulty.
And resetting…still above my pay grade …but I read that the Diff is tuned to your miners as a whole but each miner has a different diff…have you noticed your BitAxe Best Diff column? How does it compare to what Datum reports how it preforming?
It looks like the difficulty builds as time goes on, which is why I wonder if resetting harms the mining you’re doing. I imagine this only applies to hobby miners. My Gamma has a top difficulty of 900m, it’s currently at half that but still rising daily as I haven’t reset. The gateway stats are less than that for the Gamma.