GlossaryAdvanced
Difficulty Adjustment
An automatic recalibration that keeps block production time roughly consistent.
A difficulty adjustment is an automatic recalibration of how hard a proof-of-work network's mining puzzle is, designed to keep the average time between blocks roughly consistent even as total network hash rate changes.
If more miners join and hash rate rises, difficulty increases to compensate; if miners leave, difficulty decreases, helping keep block timing stable in either direction.
Examples
- Bitcoin's difficulty adjustment recalibrates roughly every two weeks based on recent block times.
- A sudden drop in miners can temporarily slow block production until the next difficulty adjustment.