Satoshi Nakamoto Explained Bitcoin Difficulty Concept 17 Years Ago: Details
Bitcoin-focused X account Documenting Bitcoin shared an email from Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto with the subject “Bitcoin P2P e cash paper,” dated Nov. 8, 2008, contained in the cryptographic mailing list. This email came eight days after the release of the Bitcoin white paper by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008.
The Bitcoin white paper, “A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,” was released Oct. 31, 2008, amid the global financial crisis. The nine-page document laid the foundation for what would become the world’s first cryptocurrency.
The white paper outlined a vision for a decentralized, peer-to-peer financial system built on cryptographic proof rather than trust in third-party intermediaries.
Satoshi Nakamoto explains “difficulty adjustment”
The email from Satoshi Nakamoto shared by Documenting Bitcoin, which dated November 2008, explains Bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment.
Satoshi Nakamoto Explains ‘Difficulty Adjustment’
“As computers get faster and the total computing power applied to creating bitcoins increases, the difficulty increases proportionally to keep the total new production constant. Thus, it is known in advance how many new bitcoin,” pic.twitter.com/HTYXf7Y1CP
— Documenting ₿itcoin 📄 (@DocumentingBTC) November 8, 2025
A part of the email reads: “Increasing hardware speed is handled: to compensate for increasing hardware speed and varying interest in running node over time, the proof of work difficulty is determined by a moving average targeting an average number of blocks per hour. if they’re generated too fast, the difficulty increases.”
It continued: “As computers get faster and the total computing power applied to creating bitcoins increases, the difficulty increases proportionally to keep the total new production constant. Thus, it is known in advance how many new bitcoin.”
Bitcoin market reset?
Coinbase Institutional’s report highlights significant leverage clearing from the crypto market after the Oct. 10 liquidation, suggesting a short-term bottom may have formed: “October’s sell-off wasn’t the end of the cycle—it may have been the reset it needed.”
Based on options implied distribution, BTC price expectations for the next three to six months are between $90,000 and $160,000, with a bullish tilt. The report also cites Fed rate cuts, liquidity easing and new regulations as medium-term tailwinds, potentially extending the current cycle to 2026.
At the time of writing, BTC was up 1.02% in the last 24 hours to $103,228.