<p>The information you are looking at is incorrect and seems to be the result of interpolation of the graph, there was no difficulty changes that resemble that in the Bitcoin block chain. Difficulty changes are every 2016 blocks, which is approximately 2 weeks if there is no difficulty change within the period. </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-09-19T12:36:01.223Z
2018-09-19T12:36:01.223Z
Claris
<p><a href="https://www.blockchain.com/charts/difficulty" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.blockchain.com/charts/difficulty</a></p>

<p>If I study the difficulty changes the last 6 months, I can see, as would be expected, that roughly every two weeks, the network makes an appropriate  adjustment. However, I would expect this change to happen in a single block, whereupon the <code>target</code> attribute jumps from one value to another. However, upon closely inspecting the graph on blockchain.com, there seems to be a few intermediate difficulties within the steep slopes on the graph. For example, I can observe these three difficulties in a three day span:</p>

<pre><code>13th of April: 3,511,060,552,899
14th of April: 3,796,188,328,005
15th of April: 3,893,316,899,029
</code></pre>

<p>How can this be explained? Were there two subsequent difficulty adjustments within two days? Or does the difficulty adjustment work slightly different than I imagine?</p>

<blockchain.info><protocol><difficulty>
Why can I observe three different network difficulties in a span of a few days?
Magnus
# Why can I observe three different network difficulties in a span of a few days?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-09-19)

<https://www.blockchain.com/charts/difficulty>

If I study the difficulty changes the last 6 months, I can see, as would be expected, that roughly every two weeks, the network makes an appropriate adjustment. However, I would expect this change to happen in a single block, whereupon the `target` attribute jumps from one value to another. However, upon closely inspecting the graph on blockchain.com, there seems to be a few intermediate difficulties within the steep slopes on the graph. For example, I can observe these three difficulties in a three day span:

```
13th of April: 3,511,060,552,899
14th of April: 3,796,188,328,005
15th of April: 3,893,316,899,029

```

How can this be explained? Were there two subsequent difficulty adjustments within two days? Or does the difficulty adjustment work slightly different than I imagine?

**Tags:** blockchain.info, protocol, difficulty


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-09-19. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

The information you are looking at is incorrect and seems to be the result of interpolation of the graph, there was no difficulty changes that resemble that in the Bitcoin block chain. Difficulty changes are every 2016 blocks, which is approximately 2 weeks if there is no difficulty change within the period.


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