Ok well currently bitcoin retargets itself every 2016 blocks. At ideal speeds (10minutes) this is 2 weeks of time. If there is a 400% drop off in mining power (ie the current 10Thash becose 2.5Thash) then BTC blocks will now average 40 minutes in length instead of 10 minutes. However as we have also seen with Bitcoin recently, 10 minute ideal blocks don't always occur even when difficulty is evenly matched. We have been forced to put up with close to 90 minutes blocks.

SolidCoin on the other hand isn't trying to target staying at 3 minute blocks. If we are at 3 minute blocks and a 400% drop off in miners occurs  3 minute blocks now take 12 minutes. Very close to Bitcoin's "ideal" block speed. So in a severe mining drop off a user of the SolidCoin network is barely going to notice the fact that blocks are happening 400% slower, as 12 minutes is still relatively fast, especially compared to Bitcoin.

What SolidCoin guarantees is low block variance, that is, the amount of time a single confirmation takes will always be within an acceptable range even under sever conditions. I designed SolidCoin because as a business which uses Bitcoin I know what is currently delivered is completely subpar for the modern world.

Bitcoin is VERY susceptible to a competitor like SolidCoin "diverting" it's mining power as people become more aware of the new and better network. Basically meaning if you have holdings in BTC today, it's not known if you will be able to do anything with those BTC tomorrow. If you want a current example of this, ask anyone who owns NMC, IX or I0Coins that are all based off the original bitcoin code.