Network Difficulty
Network difficulty is the parameter that sets how hard it is to find a block. The network keeps tuning it so blocks arrive at a steady interval.
What network difficulty is
The network has a target: a block should appear roughly once per set interval. For Bitcoin that is ten minutes. More asics join, blocks start coming faster, and the network raises the difficulty, meaning it demands a hash with more leading zeros. Hashrate leaves, blocks slow down, difficulty drops.
Bitcoin retargets once every 2016 blocks, which is about two weeks. A single adjustment is capped at fourfold in either direction, so there are no wild jumps. On Litecoin the same 2016 blocks pass in roughly three and a half days, while Kaspa adjusts on nearly every block, because blocks there arrive once a second.
For you, difficulty is a divisor. Your slice of the network is your hashrate divided by the hashrate of the whole network, and difficulty is simply the way that hashrate gets measured. The asic runs exactly like it did yesterday, but if the network has grown, your slice got smaller and fewer coins land in the wallet. Nothing broke, you just have more neighbors.
That leads to an awkward conclusion best learned before you buy: a profitability estimate is valid on the day you make it. Bitcoin difficulty has climbed almost without pause over the years, which means the same asic slowly mines fewer coins. Only the coin price can make up for that, and the price is not something we control.
Quick reference table
| What it sets | how hard it is to find a block |
| Bitcoin retarget | once every 2016 blocks, about two weeks |
| Adjustment cap | no more than 4 times per retarget |
| Measured in | a dimensionless number, written with T, P, E prefixes |
| Tied to | network hashrate, profitability, block reward |
How difficulty turns into your revenue
The math fits on one line. Your share equals your hashrate divided by the network hashrate. That share is then multiplied by the daily issuance: for Bitcoin that is 144 blocks of 3.125 BTC each, plus fees. A pool does the same calculation for you and subtracts its percentage.
What the miner shows is not the network difficulty but the share difficulty: the pool hands out deliberately easier jobs so solutions come in every few seconds rather than once a week. That is not undercounting your work, it is how the pool measures it.
Profitability numbers live exactly until the next retarget. If the calculator promises payback in 14 months, read that as 14 months at today's difficulty and today's price. Our usual advice is to run the numbers on the electricity rate you actually pay and to assume no price growth.
Example on a real asic
An Antminer S21 does 200 TH/s. With the network around 950 EH/s its slice is roughly two ten-millionths, which comes to about 0.00013 BTC per day before electricity and the pool fee. Six months later, at the same coin price, that slice will be smaller: the network usually grows over such a stretch.
The easiest way to check your own case is the calculator: it already holds the hashrate and power draw of all 212 models, and you just enter your rate.
Related terms
Where to go next on the site
Hardware
- Antminer S21 tool
- Antminer L7 tool
Algorithms
- SHA-256 algorithms
- kHeavyHash algorithms
Coins
- Bitcoin coins
- Profitability Calculator tool
Questions and answers
Why did my yield drop when the asic runs like before
Most of the time, difficulty went up. Your hashrate is the same, but your slice of the network shrank because new asics came online. Check the daily hashrate in your pool: if it looks normal, the cause is difficulty, not the hardware.
How often does difficulty change
On Bitcoin, once every 2016 blocks, roughly every two weeks. On Litecoin the same 2016 blocks pass in three and a half days. Kaspa adjusts on practically every block.
Can difficulty go down
Yes, when hashrate leaves the network. It happens after mining bans in individual countries, or when the coin price falls and older asics get switched off.
Are difficulty and network hashrate the same thing
Related, but not the same. Network hashrate is measured, difficulty is set. Hashrate estimates are in fact derived from the difficulty and the pace at which blocks appear.
Does difficulty affect the power bill
No. The bill depends only on consumption and your rate. Difficulty changes the income side, so when it rises, your margin gets squeezed from both ends at once.
How the terms connect
Every link in the chain is clickable. Orange marks where you are now.
Looking for an ASIC miner
The catalog holds 212 models. You can compare them by hashrate and by joules per terahash, then plug your own rate into the calculator and see what stays in your pocket.
Page written and checked by Denys Klimchuk. Updated .