5.5 percent more difficulty from Friday: Bitcoin miners face the year's third-largest step up

On Friday, October 16, the Bitcoin network will make itself more expensive. At around 14:00 UTC the blockchain reaches height 971,712, and the next mining difficulty adjustment takes effect. On Tuesday afternoon's reading, it comes out at 5.49 percent to the upside. That is the third-largest increase of this year, and it hits an industry whose product trades 33.8 percent below its record of $126,080. This is not a technical footnote for investors. Difficulty determines how much computation a new Bitcoin costs, and with it the floor below which a miner would rather sell its coins than hold them.