What Is Bitcoin Halving? What Does It Mean For The Future?
Many of you may not know that Bitcoin's mining rewards are halved every 3 to 4 years, let me shed some light on this for you.
What Is Halving In Literal Terms
The definition of halving is to divide equally among equal parts. If you cut an apple in half and then cut those halves in half you have 4 equal portions.
The Same Happens With Bitcoin
Every 2010 blocks bitcoin's mining reward is divided by 2.
Many people are confused by this and don't take the time to learn what it means, today I will try to explain to you all this process in simple terms.
The Reward System
The first rewards for mining Bitcoin was on January 3rd 2009, when Satoshi first start mining the Bitcoins, the block reward was 50 bitcoins + transaction fees at the time.
This means for every 1 block "mined" the miners would receive 50 Bitcoins as a reward.
Bitcoin Halves
On November 28th, 2012, Bitcoin's mining rewards halved from 50 Bitcoins per Block to 25 Bitcoins per Block.
The last block to be rewarded 50 Bitcoins was Block #2009999 at roughly 3PM global time.
It took 3 years and 10 months for the first halving to occur. About every 3-4 years Bitcoin will continue to halve.
Going from 50, 25, 12.5, etc. It will keep halving until all 21 million bitcoins mined.
Current Bitcoin Statistics
The next halving is said to happen on the 12th of June, 2020.
79.52% of the total Bitcoins have been mined as of now.
What Happens When All 21 Million Bitcoins are mined?
Once miners have unlocked this many Bitcoins, the planet's supply will essentially be tapped out, unless Bitcoin's protocol is changed to allow for a larger supply.
It may seem that the group of individuals most directly effected by the limit of the Bitcoin supply will be the Bitcoin miners themselves.
There will be no more block rewards, every single miner will have to rely on transaction fees to continue operating!
Hope You Better Understand
We are in a very complicated yet interesting Cyber World!
Individuals must take the time to teach the masses about this amazing currency of the future.
What do you think? What will Bitcoin be worth at the next halving?
Also: What do you think of this wallpaper I made?
Who is @Chron?
@chron is a 16 year old robot-headed Steemer, currently based in Bali, Indonesia.
I am currently working in association with @samstonehill on the following projects:
@steemmasters which provides FREE TUTORIALS, personal training & resteeming services. Website HERE.
@charitysteemit which aims to help charity campaign gain traction on Steemit and help the affected people, check out our most recent post HERE.
A member of the Steemit Bloggers Community, heading the CHARITY Q&A. Join us on Discord, we don't bite.
Avid graphic designer, if you want a Gif like above made by me or a banner like below contact @chron on Steemit.chat (we can discuss rates there).
Here is a list of Steemit Witness I have voted for & recommend you do the same:
@teamsteem @timcliff @jesta @good-karma @someguy123 @blocktrades @pfunk @klye @krnel @blueorgy @ausbitbank, @pharesim & @thecryptodrive
Without them the our beautiful decentralized platform would sink!
Learn what this means HERE and place your vote HERE.
I am currently working in association with @samstonehill on the following projects:
@steemmasters which provides FREE TUTORIALS, personal training & resteeming services. Website HERE.
@charitysteemit which aims to help charity campaign gain traction on Steemit and help the affected people, check out our most recent post HERE.
A member of the Steemit Bloggers Community, heading the CHARITY Q&A. Join us on Discord, we don't bite.
Avid graphic designer, if you want a Gif like above made by me or a banner like below contact @chron on Steemit.chat (we can discuss rates there).
Here is a list of Steemit Witness I have voted for & recommend you do the same:
@teamsteem @timcliff @jesta @good-karma @someguy123 @blocktrades @pfunk @klye @krnel @blueorgy @ausbitbank, @pharesim & @thecryptodrive
Without them the our beautiful decentralized platform would sink!
Learn what this means HERE and place your vote HERE.
Does halving also have to do with rising difficulty? I'm gonna say that by 2020 bitcoin will be worth 75k. :) it's amazing how much there is to learn about crypto. Thanks for doing you part to clear the fog. Also I learned about witness and voted once so far.
Not difficulty, it is to do with rewards.
2140 may mark no more block rewards unless the software protocol of BTC is changed.
It may become harder to transfer money.
Good, I would suggest the above witnesses in my post, STEEM ON 😜
If it becomes harder to transfer money would there not then be a better solution that presents itself ? Aren't reward and difficulty connected somehow?
I would very much reccomend reading this post by my friend.
It is very difficult and the people on top may want that! They want BTC to be a gold which can only be taken out with multi-hundred or even thousand dollar fees I believe.
I believe another coin with better technology (less fees, quicker transaction) like Bitcoin Cash will be the "best crypto method of exchange of the future"
Interesting. Now I see why there are bitcoin forks. So this way people who hoard it will remain with some value for long time I guess. What do you think?
Yes, I believe so.
But that isn't where it ends, Bitcoin's forks could even replace Bitcoin as they have not halved yet and therefore extremely profitable to mine if the forked coin (like Bitcoin Cash) reaches the value of Bitcoin.
Thank you for commenting, enjoy Cryptoland!
Thanks for the info. I have great hope that BTC will reach great value only if they cap it at 21 million. Maybe in the range of $30k. But it is fun to think the coin could reach $1,000,000 valuation. It should have its place as the coin that leads them all for a long time. I do think the other more useful and faster coins will gain in value also but their numbers will keep market value much lower.
Thank you very much for commenting 👍
Yes, could definitely happen.
But the future will be interesting because of all the forks.
Did you see Bitcoin Cash? It rose 350 to 1600?
Could be the new BTC...
So that mean infinite division of bitcoin ?? @chron
No, I edited my post just now 😉
There will be no more Bitcoins to mine once there are 21 Million in circulation.
Miners will have to rely on transaction fees 👍
Thanks for your comment.
I was unaware of the halving of the mining rewards. Thats very interesting. Thanks for the info! I wonder how it will affect the price? We'll find out for sure on June 12th 2020 I guess.
Glad that you learnt something new @derekrichardson, no one knows 😀
We'll just have to wait eagerly 😜
STEEM ON!
real importent
Definitely. Thanks for commenting
Thank you for explaining this so well.
You are welcome!
Glad you learnt something.
STEEM ON!
I wonder if the next halving event will be multiplied by 5 if other Bitcoins will be halving too hehe
Maybe, very interesting future awaits us 😀
Thanks for commenting, happy trading!
Oy, if only I had been around at the beginning. Oh well. It shall be interesting what happens when we reach the endpoint. With transaction fees already so high as to make it hard to spend BTC, I worry they will jump even higher.
Yup, I think btc could have doubled or more in transaction fees by then to be able to pay the miners.
Thanks for commenting 👍
That was very informative. I probably need to understand this concept more being a newbie. Upvoted and followed. Thanks!
Thank you, hope you enjoy following my content 😁
Your welcome 😉