What Is the Relationship between Network Hash Rate and Mining Difficulty Adjustments?

The network hash rate is the total computational power dedicated to mining. Mining difficulty is a value that determines how hard it is to find a valid block.

Most Proof-of-Work protocols, like Bitcoin, are programmed to automatically adjust the difficulty upward when the network hash rate increases, and downward when it decreases. This ensures that the average time between blocks remains constant, typically around 10 minutes for Bitcoin, maintaining predictable issuance.