Re: What's the rationale behind difficulty adjustment after every 2016 blocks?
⭐ Merited by ETFbitcoin (2)
I am not sure if this question has been asked here before. If it has, please you can direct me to the thread 
I was curious about knowing why difficulty adjustment happens every 2016 blocks and not 2 times less (1008 blocks) or 2 times more (4,032 blocks) or even just some random number like 3000 blocks?
Why particularly 2016 blocks?
I was curious about knowing why difficulty adjustment happens every 2016 blocks and not 2 times less (1008 blocks) or 2 times more (4,032 blocks) or even just some random number like 3000 blocks?
Why particularly 2016 blocks?
Average block time = 10 minutes.
2 weeks = 20160 minutes.
20160 / 10 = 2016 blocks.
Satoshi decided that he liked "2 weeks" as a reasonable amount of time between difficulty adjustments. If he chose too short an amount of time, then there is risk that the natural variability of block times would have too large an effect on the adjustment. If he chose too long an amount of time, then there is risk that a reduction in hash power would result in a VERY long wait for the next adjustment.
As far as I know, Satoshi never explained why he thought that 2 weeks was a good choice.