XBT difficulty adjustment at block 979,776: what changes for rented Blake2b hashrate

By the TideHash team · 29 October 2026 · 6 min read

The next XBT difficulty retarget is due at block 979,776, only 144 blocks before the coinbase lock ends at block 979,920. If you rent Blake2b hashrate, a retarget does not change the speed you buy or the way it connects to your gateway. It changes how much work one block takes, and so how your pool credits that work and how often a solo setup can expect to find a block. Here is what to expect and what to check.

How XBT difficulty works

XBT uses the same retarget rule as Bitcoin: every 2,016 blocks the network looks at how long those blocks took and resets difficulty so that blocks arrive about every 10 minutes, as the xbt.live difficulty chart explains. If more Blake2b machines join, blocks come faster and difficulty goes up at the next retarget. If machines leave, it goes down.

The last retarget was at block 977,760 on 17 October, when difficulty rose 16.9%, the third increase in a row, according to xbt.live's report on that adjustment. The same report puts the rise since 12 September at about 74%. Adding 2,016 blocks to 977,760 gives the next retarget height: 979,776.

Where the network stands today

On the morning of 29 October, the independent Knots node behind BlakeStack showed:

Two days earlier, on 27 October, the same node showed 47.34 PH/s and 8m 59s per block. That leaves 242 blocks to the retarget. At 8 to 9 minutes per block that is roughly 32 to 36 hours, so the adjustment should land around 30 October (UTC), in line with xbt.live's earlier "around Oct 30 to 31" estimate.

How big will the change be?

Nobody knows the exact number until the last block of the period is mined, but you can estimate it. Block 977,760 was found on 17 October at about 19:43 UTC (3:43 pm ET in the xbt.live report), and block 979,534 at 04:48 UTC on 29 October. That is 1,774 blocks in about 16,385 minutes, an average of about 9m 14s per block, or roughly 8% faster than the 10-minute target. If the rest of the period runs at the same pace, difficulty would rise by about 8%.

The last 120 blocks ran faster, at 8m 11s. If the final 242 blocks keep that pace, the whole period averages closer to 9m 07s and the rise comes out nearer 10%. xbt.live's first estimate on 17 October was about +5%. Treat all of these as rough ranges, not forecasts.

What a retarget changes for a rental

• Your speed does not change. An order for 10 TH/s still delivers 10 TH/s of Blake2b work to your gateway before and after the retarget. Difficulty is a network setting, not a property of the machines.
• Each TH/s covers a smaller part of the network. With higher difficulty, one block takes more work, so the same hashrate finds fewer blocks per day. On a shared pool, the XBT credited per TH/s per day falls roughly in proportion to the difficulty rise. The 17 October adjustment is a recent example of that effect.
• Share difficulty is a separate setting. Your pool or gateway sets the share difficulty for each connection (vardiff), and TideHash passes it through as your pool sets it. A network retarget does not make your miner's shares harder to submit. Gateway ports with different minimum difficulty, such as RIPTIDE's 2048 and 32768 options on its How to connect page, are about share size, not block difficulty.
• Your settings stay the same. Pool URL, user and password in the order form do not need any change. Miners still connect to your own DATUM gateway, and the gateway connects to the pool.

Solo setups: block odds before and after

If you point rented hashrate at a solo port or your own gateway in solo mode, the share of the network you hold is what matters. Using BlakeStack's 51.95 PH/s estimate:

Before the retarget, blocks come faster than every 10 minutes, so these figures run a little higher for now (about 176 blocks a day at 8m 11s). After the retarget brings block time back toward 10 minutes, the table above is the better guide. These are averages: a solo setup can find nothing for far longer than the average, or find a block early. Our pools comparison covers solo ports in more detail.

Why this retarget is unusual

Block 979,776 is just 144 blocks, about a day, before block 979,920, when the 45-day coinbase lock ends and locked rewards from the lock window become spendable, as described on the xbt.live unlock page. Hashrate may move around that event: some miners may join or leave, and the order book on any rental market can move with it. We explain the lock itself in the XBT coinbase lock and block 979,920.

The next retarget after that will be at block 981,792. Any hashrate that joins or leaves around the unlock shows up in that adjustment, roughly two weeks later.

A short checklist for rentals around the retarget

1. Check the current block height and block time on an explorer or BlakeStack before you order, so you know whether your rental spans block 979,776.
2. Make sure your DATUM gateway's miner port is reachable from the internet and its node is synced. Our DATUM gateway guide and pool settings guide list the fields.
3. Add a backup endpoint, ideally a second DATUM gateway, so a home outage around a busy period does not leave your order idle.
4. Look at the Blake2b hashrate price today and the live order book before you bid. The highest bid is served first, and an order that gets outbid keeps its paid time.
5. Size the order for the result you want to test, not for a promised outcome. Difficulty can go up or down at every retarget.

Sources

• BlakeStack: XBT network overview (checked 29 Oct 2026 and 27 Oct 2026)
• xbt.live: XBT difficulty up 16.9% at block 977,760 (17 Oct 2026)
• xbt.live: XBT mining difficulty chart (checked 29 Oct 2026)
• xbt.live: coinbase lock unlock page (checked 29 Oct 2026)
• RIPTIDE: How to connect (checked 29 Oct 2026)

Ready to try it? Rent Blake2b hashrate from 1 TH/s, or check the Blake2b hashrate price today. Questions? Ask in our Discord.