What Is the “Difficulty Target” in PoW?

The difficulty target is a 256-bit number that determines the threshold a valid block hash must be less than or equal to. This target is inversely proportional to the mining difficulty.

A lower difficulty target means a smaller range of acceptable hashes, making it harder to find a valid one, thus increasing the difficulty. The network adjusts this target every 2,016 blocks to maintain the desired block production rate.