Definition:
The mining difficulty of a cryptocurrency network is a measure of how hard it is to solve a hash below a specific target. The first miner to find a hash below the difficulty level gets their block added to the end of the blockchain. The network automatically adjusts the mining difficulty to ensure that average time between blocks remains steady as the network hash rate changes.
Explanation:
Mining difficulty is a variable parameter which changes in accordance with the network hash rate. Its main objective is to keep the time between blocks consistent. In the Bitcoin network, for example, new blocks are added to the blockchain every 10 minutes.
If the hash rate of the network is high, blocks will be generated too fast; therefore, the network will compensate by increasing the difficulty. Conversely, if the hash rate is low, blocks will be generated too slowly, leading to a decrease in difficulty.
In the early days of Bitcoin, coins could be mined using desktop and laptop computers. However, when miners started using more powerful hardware, the difficulty increased steadily over the years. As a result, CPU, GPU, and FPGA mining have been replaced in favor of ASIC hardware.
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