Tweaks to difficulty adjustment algorithm
This PR changes the difficulty algorithm to adjust from the average difficulty over the
block window instead of from the last difficulty. It also removes the special rules for the
testnet, which are incompatible with difficulty averaging.
Closes#147 again.
The min-difficulty blocks are incompatible with difficulty averaging.
Network difficulty is also now defined as the difficulty the network is
currently working to solve, rather than the last non-min-difficulty block
difficulty.
Deallocate the public parameters during Shutdown.
This also has it deallocated in `GenerateParams` and `test_bitcoin`. The virtual destructor probably isn't necessary but I added it just in case we need it some other time.
Separate concepts of block difficulty and network difficulty in RPC
"Block difficulty" is the difficulty listed in a block's header, which in the
testnet can sometimes be min-difficulty (if time-since-last-block is too large).
"Network difficulty" is the difficulty that the network was trying to satisfy
at a particular block height. In mainnet this is always equal to the difficulty
of the solved block for that height, but in testnet the network difficulty is
derived from the last non-min-difficulty block difficulty.
This commit fixes the RPC APIs that are intended to show network difficulty, so
that on testnet they don't sometimes drop to 1.0, confusing users.
Closes#1181
"Block difficulty" is the difficulty listed in a block's header, which in the
testnet can sometimes be min-difficulty (if time-since-last-block is too large).
"Network difficulty" is the difficulty that the network was trying to satisfy
at a particular block height. In mainnet this is always equal to the difficulty
of the solved block for that height, but in testnet the network difficulty is
derived from the last non-min-difficulty block difficulty.
This commit fixes the RPC APIs that are intended to show network difficulty, so
that on testnet they don't sometimes drop to 1.0, confusing users.
Closes#1181
Closes#1315 - change to RPC getblocksubsidy
For #1315
RPC getblocksubsidy height parameter is now optional
Returns result for future block
Test has been added to verify parameter input and results
Simon
Jack Grigg
zkbot
Sean Bowe