I. What is Mining Difficulty?

In simple terms, mining difficulty indicates how difficult it is for miners to create, verify, and package blocks on the blockchain. A low difficulty means that only a relatively low computing power is required, that is, there is less competition in mining. A high mining difficulty means that more computing power is needed, which implies intense competition in mining. Mining difficulty applies to cryptocurrency types that adopt the Proof of Work (PoW) algorithm. The system will dynamically adjust the mining difficulty based on the computing power information of the entire network. Understanding the basic principles related to mining difficulty is quite helpful for miners' daily mining activities.

Taking Bitcoin as an example, on the Bitcoin main chain, a new block is generated approximately every ten minutes on average. To ensure this block generation speed, the Bitcoin main chain adjusts the mining difficulty every 2,016 blocks (which is about two weeks) based on the computing power status of the entire network. When the computing power of the entire network is low (with fewer miners), the mining difficulty will be decreased. When the computing power of the entire network is high (with more miners), the mining difficulty will be increased.

II. How to Check the Mining Difficulty

Usually, you can check the relevant information on the official website of the corresponding cryptocurrency.

III. How to Customize the Setting of Mining Difficulty

You just need to fill in the corresponding difficulty value in the password field option on the mining configuration panel of the mining machine. "d" represents the initial difficulty, and "md" represents the minimum difficulty.

For example, d = 2000 means that the initial difficulty for the normal operation of the mining machine is 2,000. md = 1,000 means that regardless of the actual computing power of the mining machine, it will only accept tasks issued by the mining pool with a difficulty greater than 1,000.