Proof of work is a consensus mechanism that forces computers to spend measurable energy solving a mathematical puzzle before they can add a new block of transactions to a blockchain. It is the reason bitcoin has value as a settlement network and the reason that network consumes more electricity than some countries. Summary Proof of work requires miners to find a hash output below a target threshold by repeatedly guessing a nonce value, consuming real computational energy in the process. Bitcoin adjusts its mining difficulty every 2,016 blocks, roughly every two weeks, to maintain an average block time of 10…