Pumppausasemien

Pumppausasemien is a term used in the context of cryptocurrency mining, particularly in the Bitcoin network. It refers to the process of increasing the difficulty of mining new blocks by adjusting the target threshold for valid block hashes. This mechanism is designed to maintain the stability of the network by ensuring that the average time between new blocks remains relatively constant, despite fluctuations in the total computational power (hash rate) of the network.

The difficulty adjustment algorithm in Bitcoin is triggered every 2016 blocks, which typically occurs approximately every two weeks. At this point, the network calculates the average time it took to mine the previous 2016 blocks and compares it to the desired block time of 10 minutes. If the actual time is less than the desired time, the difficulty is increased to slow down the mining process. Conversely, if the actual time is greater than the desired time, the difficulty is decreased to speed up the mining process.

This dynamic adjustment helps to prevent the network from becoming too easy or too difficult to mine, ensuring that the security and decentralization of the network are maintained. It also helps to control the inflation rate of new bitcoins, as the total supply is designed to reach its maximum of 21 million coins around the year 2140.