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1
I seem to recall, long ago, being told that difficulty couldn't change more than a certain amount at each retarget, but I can't seem to find what that factor is (or even confirmation that such a factor exists) no matter how hard I google. Does such a factor exist and if so what is its value?
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The difficulty never changes by more than a factor of 4 (except for in a special case that only applies on testnet).
The code that enforces this is here.
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Well doesn't that figure, the moment I ask the question my google-fu kicks in.
This wiki article states:
A single retarget never changes the target by more than a factor of 4 either way to prevent large changes in difficulty.
Ah, gotta love moments like this! ;) – ThePiachu – 2012-06-23T00:08:08.857
Yeah, I seriously think there's something about the act of phrasing a question for SE that activates some hidden bit of gray matter and creates superior search terms. It's not so annoying when it's an hour later, this one was mere seconds :P – David Perry – 2012-06-23T00:13:12.873
1Well, it's still a good question and a good answer. – ThePiachu – 2012-06-23T00:27:12.093
Interesting that the article would consider a change from the currently difficult of 1,726,567 to either 5,000,000 or 500,000 as not being a large change... I guess it's considering it from a logarithmic perspective? – Highly Irregular – 2012-06-23T01:03:21.177