What Is the Difference between Difficulty and the Target Hash?

The difficulty is a human-readable, relative number that expresses how much harder it is to mine a block compared to the easiest possible block. The target hash is the actual 256-bit number that a valid block header hash must be less than or equal to.

The difficulty is derived from the target hash. When the network adjusts difficulty, it is actually adjusting the target hash value, which in turn changes the difficulty number.

What Is the ‘Mining Difficulty’ in a PoW System?
What Is the Purpose of the “Compact Target” Representation in the Block Header?
What Is the Difference between SHA-256 and Keccak-256?
How Does the Size of the Hash Output (E.g. SHA-256) Relate to the Nonce?
What Is “Mining Difficulty” and How Does It Adjust in a PoW System?
How Is the ‘Target’ Hash Value Calculated Based on the Difficulty?
How Does the “Difficulty Adjustment” in Bitcoin Mining Relate to the 256-Bit Hash Target?
What Is the Role of the ‘Target’ in the Bitcoin Difficulty Adjustment?

Glossar