Halving (halving, halving) is the moment when the reward to miners in the Bitcoin network is halved. This happens every 210,000 blocks and is a key feature of BTC in ensuring the necessary scarcity of coins, subject to the maximum emission of 21 million BTC included in the protocol.

To date, more than 18.5 million coins have already been mined over the 12 years of the cryptocurrency’s existence, and it would seem that those small balances of 2.5 million BTC are about to exhaust themselves. However, it is the halving that will provide miners with work for another 120 years.

How will this happen?

A total of 64 halvings are planned, three are already behind us (in November 2012 - then the reward decreased from 50 BTC to 25 BTC, in June 2016 - a decrease from 25 BTC to 12.5 BTC, in May 2020 - from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC).

And each time the number of coins mined over a certain period of time will decrease. Those. if with a reward of 12.5 BTC over 4 years (210,000 blocks) 2.625 million BTC were mined, then after the last halving on May 11, 2020, over the next four years with a reward of 6.25 BTC for each block a total of 1 .3125 million coins.

Those. After each of the upcoming halvings, the number of bitcoins born over a 4-year period decreases, and the time frame for mining the planned maximum increases. This is why until today so much has been mined in a decade, and in the future so little will be mined in a century.

The halving will continue every 210,000 blocks until the reward reaches 1 satoshi, the smallest unit of measurement equal to 0.00000001 BTC. After this, miners will only earn from transaction fees.

Why is halving important?

It creates predictable shortages!

One of the key features of Bitcoin is that it is strictly limited to a maximum supply of 21 million coins (more precisely 20,999,999.9796 BTC). There will never be 21,000,000.00000001 BTC without a consensus protocol change. The mechanism by which such conditions are achieved is halving, which is critical to predictable scarcity and prosperity of the cryptocurrency.

Fact: Historically, Bitcoin halving has a positive effect on the crypto market.

And the next halving is very soon, gentlemen!😘

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P.S. This publication uses material from our articles from the Prometheus website without violating copyrights or other people's thoughts.