Miners might attempt to manipulate the system by falsely reporting that it took them longer to solve a block than it actually did, aiming to reduce the difficulty level for future blocks. This strategy, however, is not without its pitfalls.

Firstly, if a miner reports that it took them "2 weeks + x seconds" to mine a block, they are implicitly committing to mining the next set of 2016 blocks at a pace that compensates for this additional time, specifically "2 weeks - x seconds," assuming their hash rate remains constant. Failure to maintain this adjusted pace would result in losing out on the cumulative chain work, which is crucial for securing rewards and sustaining the blockchain's integrity.

Moreover, each miner has a limited ability to manipulate the timing without facing penalties. They can only afford to add an extra "x seconds" once before any further adjustments start to affect their real mining time. Accumulating adjustments beyond a threshold of 7200 seconds will lead to their mined blocks being rejected by other nodes within the network. This mechanism ensures a level of fairness and difficulty adjustment accuracy within the mining process, preventing any single miner or group of miners from gaining undue advantage through manipulation of mining times.