it's for maintaining a given rate of solution (hash with enough zeroes) discovery within a specified time period

btw, "zeroes" is not really the best way to implement targets, better is to use a large integer library and compare the values as scalars

bitcoin has 32 bit precision for compact representation in blocks, you can have full 256 bit targets in a nostr based system since it's not an immutable long living chain... the difficulty adjustment formula will produce a proportion, a fraction ie 0.8... or 1.1... and you just multiply the previous target by this value to get the new target

i'm not really sure that proof of work is fit to the task though

i think that lightning and marketplaces to discover prices and enable users to trade artifacts and adjust prices according to demand so you don't screw up supply of artifacts

in my opinion, proof of work belongs in only one place in the whole world: bitcoin chain

everywhere else there is all kinds of game theory problems with maintaining security