Why the mining difficulty increase?

[darkshadowgirl]

Why is there an increase in mining difficulty? Is the 'by design' or is it a by-product of the network just getting larger organically thus requiring more computer power to run?


If 'by design', what is the reasoning behind that?

[Gator-hex]

The network is balanced by raising the difficulty so a block about every ten minutes is solved...

...six blocks per hour x 24 hours per day x 25 BTC reward = 3600 new Bitcoins per day (until 2016).

Yes it's by design, it causes us to compete to solve the block, which drives computational efficiency, and it doesn't flood the system with new coins too quickly.

[Asinine]

The reasoning is specifically to limit the rate of which newly found bitcoins enter the market, as darkshadowgirl mentioned.  This is done for much the same reason as in more traditional currencies:  To prevent hyperinflation due excess currency printing that far outstrips demand.  It helps stabilize the perceived value of the currency.

[DannyHamilton]

The reasoning is specifically to limit the rate of which newly found bitcoins enter the market

It is also done to limit the rate at which new blocks are broadcast onto the network to avoid issues with network latency that could lead to an excessive number of orphaned blocks.

[hasher87]

more miners