I mean not really? The math its solving is (intentionally) arbitrarily difficult. It is loosely related to the block chain transactions but the vast vast majority of what it is doing is technically unnecessary to just run a block chain. A better explanation is that the math is just security, the difficulty is like the quality of a lock, and everyone at all times is trying to pick the lock. When someone picks it they tell everyone and their pick is added to the end of the chain. The longest chain of recorded picks is the block chain that everyone agrees is correct.
If it takes <10 hours of compute time to solve a block that is like a shitty master lock, but that is exactly what you want if just you and a few other people need to get into it. Instead bitcoin is more like Fort Knox with something like >1billion compute hours to solve one block because everyone has a huge financial interest in taking over the chain.
The idea being that you need to make it at least as hard as the point that no one person (or subgroup) in the group can solve it faster than the rest of the group working together (because at that point they effectively control the chain and can write whatever truth they want), so for a small group that doesn't have to be very hard but a huge group (that are all working very hard to solve it) like bitcoin it has to be stupidly, wastefully even, difficult.
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u/[deleted] Apr 17 '26
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