On April 19th or whenever a Bitcoin miner digs up block number 840,000, the amount of Bitcoin (BTC) entering circulation will halve from roughly 900 per day to 450. This event, colloquially known as the halving (sometimes halvening), looms large in the Bitcoin psyche—one of those things that make Bitcoin Bitcoin. Perhaps because it only happens in leap years (so far), Bitcoiners are keenly anticipating the halving more than most crypto holidays, like Bitcoin Pizza Day or the anniversary of Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper release. But this won’t last forever.
This overview is part of CoinDesk’s ‘Future of Bitcoin’ package.
Once all 21 million bitcoins are mined, the halving will reach its goal and cease (likely in the year 2140). Why Nakamoto chose this particular approach? No one knows. Just as there’s no real understanding of why he picked a 21 million limit or January 9th as the launch date. There are plenty of conjectures trying to make sense of these seemingly arbitrary elements of Bitcoin’s design. Because if there’s one thing that can be said for sure about Bitcoin, it’s that it tends to divide opinions.
So, with such an anticipated event like the halving, there’s certainly plenty to argue about. Will it be ‘priced in’ (i.e., will the supply reduction of Bitcoins entering the market lead to a rally)? Will the revenue halving bankrupt Bitcoin miners? Will it be different this time?