Bitcoin just got really hard to mine (here's why this is a good thing)

Bitcoin mining difficulty just reached an all time high.

Here's how it works / what it means:

The Bitcoin network has been carefully designed to process about 7 transactions per second (TPS). The idea being that it's slow, but super secure.

When a transaction is submitted to the Bitcoin network, it's grouped with ~2,000 other transactions (this group is known as a 'block').

These 'blocks' of transactions are then processed by miners, one after the other, in a chain (block-chain ).

Miners win the right to process these 'blocks' and earn Bitcoin, by solving a super complex math problems with big ol' computers.

The more computers that are added to the network → the faster these math problems can be solved → the faster each block of transactions can be processed.

So to make sure the system stays at a steady 7 TPS, the complexity of these math problems are adjusted.

Meaning, the more computing power that is plugged in to the network, the more difficult each math problem becomes.

Ok, so that's how it works. Let's land this plane and talk about what this news actually means, and why it's significant...

'All time high difficulty' indicates that more miners are joining the network than ever before, which indicates the Bitcoin network is larger than it has ever been.

This is especially significant given that we're in the middle of a bear market.

Networks / businesses / products don't usually grow in times like this...they stagnate and shrink.

This is a good sign for Bitcoin.