How Does Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Achieve Consensus without a Difficulty Adjustment Mechanism?
Proof-of-Stake achieves consensus by having validators "stake" their coins to participate in block creation and validation. Instead of competing via computational power, validators are selected pseudo-randomly based on the size of their stake and other factors.
The network's security is derived from the economic cost of attacking the network (the value of the staked coins), not from a variable mining difficulty.
Glossar
Block Creation
Genesis ⎊ Block creation, within cryptocurrency systems, represents the initial block of a blockchain, hardcoded into the software protocol and serving as the foundational element for all subsequent blocks.
Economic Cost
Assessment ⎊ Economic Cost in the context of crypto networks refers to the real-world resources expended to maintain the ledger's operation, most notably the energy consumption in Proof-of-Work systems or the opportunity cost of staked capital in Proof-of-Stake systems.