When miners look at their dashboard on Gokby for the first time, they often get a scare:
"I bought a 100 TH/s miner, but the dashboard only shows 85 TH/s right now! Is my device broken?"
A short time later, it suddenly shows 115 TH/s.
Don't panic. This is completely normal. In this article, we explain what hashrate actually is and why it is never constant.
What is Hashrate?
Simply put: Hashrate is the number of "guesses" your miner can make per second to solve the mathematical puzzle of the Bitcoin block.
- 1 TH/s (Terahash) = 1 trillion guesses per second.
- An Antminer S19j Pro with 100 TH/s makes 100 trillion guesses every single second.
Reported Hashrate vs. Effective Hashrate
There are two types of hashrate you need to understand:
1. Local Hashrate (Reported / Real-time):
This is what your device is actually doing. You see this value in the miner's web interface (see Article 4). This value is relatively stable. If your device gets hot, it might drop slightly, but it barely fluctuates.
2. Pool-side Hashrate (Effective / Scoring):
This is the value you see in the Gokby dashboard. This value is an estimate.
The pool cannot look into your basement and see how fast your chip is calculating. The pool only sees the results (shares) that your miner submits.
Why the Pool Value Fluctuates (The "Luck" Factor)
Imagine your miner is rolling dice. It needs to roll a 6 to send a "share" to the pool.
- At 100 TH/s, statistically, it should roll a 6 ten times per minute.
- In one minute, it gets lucky and rolls a 6 fifteen times. The pool thinks: "Wow, he's fast!" and calculates 150 TH/s.
- In the next minute, it gets unlucky and only rolls a 6 five times. The pool thinks: "Oh, he slowed down" and calculates 50 TH/s.
Over a period of 6 to 24 hours, this evens out. The average (24h Average) in the pool should correspond almost exactly to what is on your device (minus approx. 1-2% for network losses or developer fees).
Other Reasons for Low Hashrate
If your 24h average is consistently significantly lower than the factory specification, there are real problems:
- Overheating: The miner throttles itself to avoid burning out. Check ventilation.
- Poor Internet: If your latency is too high or packets are lost, your shares won't reach the pool.
- Defective Chips: On the miner status screen, you often see "O" for okay and "X" for defective chips. Many "X"s mean hardware damage.
Conclusion
Don't let the real-time display in the Gokby dashboard drive you crazy. Mining is a marathon, not a sprint. As long as your 24h average is correct, everything is running perfectly. Fluctuations are part of the mathematics behind Bitcoin.
