Can a smart mind explain block difficulty calculation in lay terms? I tried to read it here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Difficulty

But it is closer to a rigorous math proof than to an explanation.

I am interested to understand that so I can understand what makes a block or a block chain more difficult than another. It is said that when a bitcoin client starts it chooses the most difficult block chain it sees.

Can a smart mind explain that in simple terms?
I am interested to understand that so I can understand what makes a block or a block chain more difficult than another. It is said that when a bitcoin client starts it chooses the most difficult block chain it sees.


In order to mine a block, one needs to attach work to the block header. If too many blocks are created, the requirement for work is increased, meaning the difficulty increases. When two chains are compared, the difficulty of each block is totaled up, and the chain with a higher score wins.