Blockchain Bites: It's Never Been Harder to Mine Bitcoin

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This adjustment reflects increasing computer power on the network and, potentially, investment in new mining machines, despite bitcoin ranging between $9,100 and $9,500 since early July.

The increased difficulty comes two months after Bitcoin's quadrennial halving, which has complicated the economy of Bitcoin miners and machinery that secure the network.

"The Filecoin craze in China may be largely related to the long-standing popularity of crypto mining in the country in general, which is home to around 65% of the computing power on Bitcoin by estimation," CoinDesk's Wolfie Zhao writes.

Privacy MattersDeveloper Chris Belcher is trying to bring privacy to Bitcoin.

"CoinSwap could be said to allow bitcoins to teleport undetectably to anywhere else on the blockchain," Bitcoin Wiki writes.

Fidelity holds over 10% stake in bitcoin mining firm Hut 8.A Ripple founder is building a surveillance network in San Francisco.

While some see this as reflecting weaker buying pressure, the trend also points to the Bitcoin network decentralizing.

One could argue that bitcoin ownership is being transferred from relatively few whales to a large number of smaller investors," CoinDesk's Omkar Godbole writes.

Now, as the bitcoin company's newest post-doctoral fellow, she is exploring ways to optimize the Lightning Network.