What Is “Mining Difficulty” and How Does It Adjust in a PoW System?

Mining difficulty is a measure of how hard it is to find a new valid block hash, which must be below a specific target set by the network. It ensures that the average time between blocks remains relatively constant, regardless of the total hashrate deployed.

The difficulty automatically adjusts based on the time it took to mine a set number of previous blocks. If blocks are found too quickly, the difficulty increases; if they are found too slowly, the difficulty decreases.

This self-regulating mechanism is crucial for network stability.