How Does the Concept of ‘Difficulty’ Protect a PoW Network?

Mining difficulty is an adjustable parameter in a Proof-of-Work system that determines how hard it is to find a valid block hash. It is designed to keep the average block time consistent, regardless of the total network hashrate.

By increasing the difficulty as hashrate rises, the network ensures that an attacker must expend more computational effort and time to successfully mine blocks. This rising cost and effort acts as a significant economic deterrent against malicious activity like 51% attacks.

The difficulty adjustment mechanism is central to PoW security.