What is Difficulty Bomb?
Let's find out Difficulty Bomb meaning, definition in crypto, what is Difficulty Bomb, and all other detailed facts.
Difficulty Bomb refers to the increasing difficulty of mining on Ethereum with a Proof-of-Work mechanism. The difficulty increases per specific block heights. It’s a part of the gradual shift to Ethereum 2.0 that uses a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism.
The key part of the mining process is solving a complex mathematical puzzle. The miner that does it first receives the mining reward.
Currently, miners take 10 to 20 seconds to solve a Proof-of-Work mining puzzle. As the number of miners increases, so does the speed of solving these puzzles. The difficulty bomb was created to tackle this problem.
As the puzzles become more and more difficult, it will be less and less profitable to continue mining on the old chain. The ultimate goal of the difficulty bomb is to discourage miners from generating blocks under the Proof-of-Work mechanism. Which will lead to the old chain being abandoned and, in essence, frozen in time.
Moreover, the difficulty bomb is a preventative measure for forking the Ethereum blockchain into two separate blockchains.
It also makes sure that the development of the Ethereum blockchain doesn’t become stagnant. This is a necessary step to maintain a stable and usable blockchain.