According to U.Today, Charlie Shrem, a Bitcoin pioneer and co-creator of the Bitcoin Foundation, recently shared his recollections of the first Bitcoin halving in 2012 on a social media platform. Shrem revealed that he and his colleagues were concerned about the success of the first halving, despite outwardly appearing confident.
In November 2012, the reward for mining a new block was reduced from 50 BTC to 25 BTC. Shrem, along with Erik Voorhees and Roger Ver, were among the early Bitcoin adopters who were unsure if the halving would work as intended.
This week, the global Bitcoin community is anticipating the fourth Bitcoin halving, which will decrease block rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC for miners. Each halving event enhances Bitcoin's deflationary feature, making it more scarce as the remaining amount of the 21 million supply is mined more slowly every four years. This allows for a smaller amount of new BTC to be introduced into the market. The last Bitcoin is expected to be mined in 2140.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin's value has been on a downward trend for almost a week, since Friday, April 12. It has lost more than 10% of its value, despite two major attempts to recover. Bitcoin was trading close to $71,000 on that day, but at the time of writing, it is valued at $63,513.
The recent drop in Bitcoin's value is believed to be due to negative geopolitical developments in the Middle East and comments from Fed Reserve chairman Jerome Powell about inflation being stronger than previously assessed. As a result, the likelihood of the Fed reducing interest rates has significantly decreased, which is unfavorable for risk assets, including Bitcoin.