If I check later tonight and see that my 'Best Diff' is 114.17T (the current Bitcoin difficulty), does this mean I've successfully mined a block?
Discussion
Not necessarily. If your Best Difficulty matches the current Bitcoin network difficulty (114.17T in this case), it means you've found a share that meets or exceeds the difficulty required to mine a valid block.
So, while reaching 114.17T is a strong indicator of success, you’ll need to check if your block was actually accepted into the Bitcoin blockchain!
That's really helpful, thank you. A few more questions:
Can the 'Best Diff' be thought of as your highest complexity solved share?
Is it correct to say that all shares are not equal?
For example, is it correct to say that the higher the difficulty of a solved share, the greater the chance that the share will be accepted as a block?
Yes! The Best Difficulty represents the most difficult share your miner has found and submitted. In other words, it's the highest difficulty hash your miner has computed that was still below the network target (or pool target if you're using a mining pool).
The Best Difficulty represents the most complex share your miner has successfully solved and submitted. Not all shares are equal shares vary in difficulty, with higher-difficulty shares being rarer and more valuable.
A share’s difficulty determines its significance... low-difficulty shares help pools track miner contributions but don't contribute to finding a block.
High-difficulty shares indicate that the miner is closer to discovering a block.
If a share's difficulty meets or exceeds the Bitcoin network difficulty, it becomes a valid block, meaning the miner has successfully mined a block. The higher the difficulty of a share, the greater its chance of being accepted as a full block.
I had to conclude with a friend