Difficulty in Cryptocurrency

In cryptocurrency, difficulty measures how hard it is to mine a block on a Proof of Work (PoW) blockchain. It automatically adjusts based on the network’s hashing power to keep block times consistent and maintain security.

For Bitcoin, the target block time is about 10 minutes. If blocks are mined too fast, difficulty rises; if too slow, it decreases. Higher difficulty requires more computational power, which is why miners now use specialized hardware like ASICs instead of standard PCs or GPUs.