San Jose-based Peernova, until now a bitcoin mining solutions company, will be refocusing its business model on enterprise blockchain software with the help of $8.6 million in funding.

The investment was led by Mosaik Partners, with contributions from former AOL CEO Steve Case and Crypto Currency Partners.

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The company formed earlier this year when mining hardware maker HighBitcoin merged with CloudHashing, which sold mining contracts.

While still keeping a foot in the mining business, they will now be devoting energies to things like decentralized applications, smart property, smart contracts and e-currency software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications.

The mining sector has undergone recent challenges due to continuously weakening bitcoin prices, reflected by a stagnation in the network’s hashrate and difficulty level as miners exit the market. Thus, the company may see more opportunity in developing the next generation of blockchain technology, though they did not specify mining challenges as the rationale for the move.

Indeed, there has been a recent spike of investment activity in blockchain-related technology, as observed with a recent $21 million investment in Blockstream and its sidechains project.

Aside from Changtip’s $3.5 million round, December has otherwise been a quiet month for investment activity in bitcoin-related ventures.

For a detailed list of recent investment and M&A activity in the crypto industry, please visit the DC Magnates Crypto Deal Table.