#Bitcoin doesn’t just run on energy. It runs on a self-correcting feedback loop #Satoshi embedded into the code from day one: the difficulty adjustment.
Art by Arturo Fernández • Guest writer: Jason Deane
Just one month after Bitcoin launched, the network hit a milestone that still defines its rhythm today – the first mining difficulty adjustment.
Miners validate transactions, secure the network and issue new BTC according to rules fixed in the protocol. Blocks are meant to arrive every 10 minutes, but in an open system anyone can join or leave at any time. If too much hash power enters the network, blocks arrive faster. If miners leave, block times slow and transactions jam. Satoshi needed a mechanism to keep the heartbeat steady.
His solution: every 2,016 blocks, the network automatically recalibrates difficulty based on how long the previous 2,016 blocks took to mine. If blocks were mined too quickly, difficulty rises. If they were slow, difficulty drops. This keeps Bitcoin anchored to its 10-minute rhythm, regardless of how much hash power comes online.
The math is simple:
Expected time (20,160 minutes) / actual time = adjustment factor.
That factor is applied to the new difficulty.
On February 18th, 2009, the very first adjustment increased difficulty from 1.0T to 1.18T – an 18 percent jump that prevented blocks from being solved too quickly. A second adjustment followed on February 29th. The mechanism has fired reliably every two weeks since, despite an astronomical rise in global hash power.
Sixteen years on, Bitcoin still functions exactly as Satoshi designed: decentralized, predictable and self-stabilizing.
Read the full article:
https://www.historyofbitcoin.io/timeline/the-game-gets-harder
This artwork, “THE GAME GETS HARDER,” appears in the History of Bitcoin Collector’s Book and on the interactive timeline.
