Setting target-adjust-freq, increases the block mining rate

Question

Hi,

I have created the chain, and I was checking with different parameters to adjust the mining difficulty. When I set the target-adjust-freq as >0, then the blocks are being mined very fast and if I set it to -1 than the speed of mining is as per the average block time parameter. I have also set min-empty-rounds as -1 and anyone-can-mine as true.

I am not sure how to control this behavior, could you help me with this?

Answer 1

If you set target-adjust-freq as a positive value, then you are creating a blockchain with a proof-of-work consensus mechanism which will automatically adjust its mining difficulty after a number of blocks (determined by target-adjust-freq/target-block-time) in order to aim to reach a block creation rate of target-block-time seconds. This difficulty adjustment is done based on the chain's past performance. So if your chain is in a state of flux, with mining capacity coming and going in significant proportions, the adjustment will not be exact. This is quite likely to be the case when your chain is getting started. You need to wait until the next adjustment takes place, then the block creation rate should settle down to an average of target-block-time seconds.