# ZEC mining Difficulty chart or how to calculate?

**URL:** <https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zec-mining-difficulty-chart-or-how-to-calculate/18631>\
**Category:** Mining\
**Created:** [July 4, 2017, 10:20pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zec-mining-difficulty-chart-or-how-to-calculate/18631 "2017-07-04T22:20:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![smokinggun46](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@smokinggun46](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/smokinggun46)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 10:20pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zec-mining-difficulty-chart-or-how-to-calculate/18631/1 "2017-07-04T22:20:53Z")

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Whats the current ZEC mining difficulty? What factors contribute to higher difficulty? Is there a source that maps historical difficulties?

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**Author:** ![whfct](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3e96dc/32.png) [@whfct](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/whfct)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 7:53pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zec-mining-difficulty-chart-or-how-to-calculate/18631/2 "2017-07-05T19:53:20Z")

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> **[Zcash Difficulty Chart - ZEC Difficulty](https://www.coinwarz.com/mining/zcash/difficulty-chart)**
>
> The Zcash difficulty chart provides the current Zcash difficulty (ZEC diff) target as well as a historical data graph visualizing Zcash mining difficulty chart values with ZEC difficulty adjustments (both increases and decreases) defaulted to today...

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**Author:** ![whfct](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3e96dc/32.png) [@whfct](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/whfct)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 7:55pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zec-mining-difficulty-chart-or-how-to-calculate/18631/3 "2017-07-05T19:55:58Z")

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> [@smokinggun46](#):
>
> Whats the current ZEC mining difficulty? What factors contribute to higher difficulty?

See page 36 of the [ZCash protocol specification](https://github.com/zcash/zips/raw/master/protocol/protocol.pdf).

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**Author:** ![brainbudt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c2a13f/32.png) [@brainbudt](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/brainbudt)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 10:41pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zec-mining-difficulty-chart-or-how-to-calculate/18631/4 "2017-07-05T22:41:47Z")

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yea like somebody understands that

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**Author:** ![whfct](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3e96dc/32.png) [@whfct](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/whfct)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 11:13pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zec-mining-difficulty-chart-or-how-to-calculate/18631/5 "2017-07-05T23:13:12Z")

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> [@brainbudt](#):
>
> yea like somebody understands that

Put simply, difficulty is a function of hashrate and blocktime. The algorithm increases or decreases difficulty to ensure that blocktime remains at or around 2.5 minutes, irrespective of the hashrate.