All concepts
Concept
Consensus
Difficulty Adjustment
First appeared Jan 2009
Why it matters
This self-correcting clock is what keeps issuance on schedule and the network stable as hash power swings wildly — an elegant feedback loop with no operator.
What it is
Every 2,016 blocks Bitcoin retargets how hard mining is, so that blocks keep arriving about every ten minutes no matter how much mining power joins or leaves the network.