Bitcoin automatically adjusts its mining difficulty every 2,016 blocks to maintain a consistent 10-minute block production time.

The Bitcoin difficulty adjustment is a core feature of its consensus algorithm, first described by Satoshi Nakamoto in the 2008 whitepaper. This mechanism targets a block generation time of exactly 10 minutes. Every 2,016 blocks—approximately every 14 days—the network compares the actual time taken to mine those blocks against the 20,160-minute goal.If the total time is less than two weeks, the difficulty increases to slow down production. If it took longer than two weeks, the difficulty decreases to speed it up. This adjustment is achieved by modifying the target hash value that miners must find. A lower target value makes it statistically harder to find a valid hash, requiring greater computational power and higher hash rates.This process is vital because it prevents high-powered hardware from flooding the market with new coins too quickly. It also ensures the network remains functional even if a large number of miners suddenly go offline. For example, during the 2021 Chinese mining crackdown, the hash rate dropped by over 50 percent. The network responded with its largest difficulty drop in history—approximately 28 percent—to keep the system running smoothly.