Difficulty Adjustment

An automatic recalibration mechanism in proof-of-work blockchains that adjusts how hard it is to mine a new block based on the current network hash rate. Bitcoin adjusts difficulty every 2,016 blocks (~2 weeks) to maintain a target block time of approximately 10 minutes. If miners join and blocks are found too quickly, difficulty increases; if miners leave and blocks slow down, difficulty decreases. This self-regulating mechanism ensures consistent block production regardless of how much mining power is active.