How Does the PoW Difficulty Adjustment Mechanism Work?
The difficulty adjustment mechanism automatically increases or decreases the complexity of the mining puzzle to ensure that the average time between blocks remains constant (e.g. 10 minutes for Bitcoin).
If blocks are being found too quickly (due to increased hash rate), the difficulty increases. If they are found too slowly (due to decreased hash rate), the difficulty decreases.
This maintains a predictable issuance schedule.
Glossar
Difficulty Adjustment
Mechanism ⎊ Difficulty adjustment is a crucial mechanism in proof-of-work PoW blockchain networks, particularly Bitcoin, that automatically recalibrates the computational effort required to mine a new block.
Difficulty Adjustment Mechanism
Algorithm ⎊ Difficulty Adjustment Mechanisms represent a core tenet of blockchain protocol design, dynamically modulating mining or validation difficulty to maintain consistent block times despite fluctuating network hashrate.
Time between Blocks
Interval ⎊ The Time between Blocks represents the actual elapsed time separating the successful mining and broadcast of two consecutive blocks on a blockchain, a stochastic variable in Proof-of-Work systems.