# Difficulty increase

**URL:** <https://forum.storj.io/t/difficulty-increase/2521>\
**Category:** FAQ\
**Tags:** identity\
**Created:** [November 7, 2019, 9:11pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/difficulty-increase/2521 "2019-11-07T21:11:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 12

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**Author:** ![nerdatwork](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/user_avatar/forum.storj.io/nerdatwork/32/1135_2.png) [@nerdatwork](https://forum.storj.io/u/nerdatwork)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 1:04pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/difficulty-increase/2521/12 "2019-12-04T13:04:43Z")

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> [@anon27637763](#):
>
> I’ve been able to create keys of any arbitrary difficulty using the `--difficulty` option

There is a valid reason why difficulty is raised to 36

> [@Changelog v0.25.1](https://forum.storj.io/t/changelog-v0-25-1/2517/1):
>
> **Increase default difficulty Part 1**  
> With this release we increase the default difficulty from 30 to 36. This change is needed to protect the network against different attacks

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