Bitcoin Difficulty Level Increases by More Than 10%

The Bitcoin network’s mining difficulty level has increased by 10.68%. The change happened on November 18, 2016, as a part of the network’s inbuilt regulation mechanism that ensures that if more miners arrive, the difficulty increases to keep issuance rate stable on 10-minute blocks. This is the highest increase experience since February this year when the mining difficulty surged over 20% on February 7.

Read more here

What is the 'Halving'? A Primer to Bitcoin's Big Mining Change

Of all the rules in bitcoin's code, few are as revered as the hard limit of bitcoin production.

The code dictates that 21 million coins will be released over the course of bitcoin's lifecycle. By limiting the total amount of bitcoins that could be created, Satoshi Nakamoto was able to establish a defined amount of available data, a revolutionary accomplishment in and of itself.