Difficulty
Bitcoin mining difficulty is a number that sets how hard it is to find a valid block, adjusted every 2,016 blocks to keep blocks about 10 minutes apart.
As of block 971,630 (15 Oct 2026, 23:05 UTC), the difficulty is 132.72 T. The next change, in 82 blocks, is expected to be about +6.1%.
How hard it is to find a block. Every 2,016 blocks (about two weeks) the network adjusts it, so that one block arrives about every 10 minutes no matter how much hashrate joins or leaves.
How does the adjustment work?
Every 2,016 blocks, each node compares how long they took with two weeks. If they came faster, difficulty rises by the same factor; if slower, it falls. One adjustment can change it by at most four times either way.
What does the number mean?
It says how many times harder a block is to find than at the minimum difficulty of 1. A block takes on average difficulty × 2³² hashes, so a difficulty of 100 trillion means about 430 sextillion hashes per block.
Sources
- Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System (the white paper)
- Bitcoin developer guide: block chain
Updated 10 Oct 2026
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