Bitcoin, the first and leading cryptocurrency in terms of trading volume and market capitalisation, went through its third “halving” on May 11 2020. This major adjustment to how the cryptocurrency operates has only happened twice before and happens every four years. But what does this actually mean and what impact will it have?
Q: how does bitcoin work?
Bitcoin is a digital currency that makes use of blockchain technology to store and record all transactions. First proposed in a white paper published online in 2008 by a mysterious person (or group of people) called Satoshi Nakamoto. The unique features of bitcoin compared to fiat currencies like dollars or pounds are that there is no central authority or bank. Each member of the network has equal power. This decentralised network is completely transparent and all transactions can be read on the blockchain. At the same time it offers privacy in terms of who owns the cryptocurrency.
Bitcoins are created (or mined) by so-called miners who contribute computing power to securing the network, as well as processing transactions on the network by solving complex mathematical puzzles through computational power. These miners are rewarded for their work processing the transactions on the blockchain with bitcoins. But to combat inflation, Nakamoto wrote into the code that the total number of bitcoins that will ever exist will be 21 million. Right now there are 18.38 million.
The first ever block recorded on the bitcoin blockchain was on January 3 2009 where Nakamoto received 50 bitcoins. In the white paper, Nakamoto specified that after every 210,000 blocks the reward for miners will half. So the first halving took place on November 28 2012 where the miner’s reward was reduced from 50 bitcoins to 25 bitcoins. The second halving was on July 9 2016 and the miner’s reward was reduced from 25 bitcoins to 12.5 bitcoins. And the third, most recent halving on May 11 2020 means bitcoin miners now receive 6.25 bitcoins.
Q: Why does bitcoin halve?
Nakamoto has never explained explicitly the reasons behind the halving. Some speculate the halving system was designed to distribute coins more quickly at the beginning to incentive people to join the network and mine new blocks. Block rewards are programmed to halve at regular intervals because the value of each coin rewarded is deemed likely to increase as the network expanded. However, this may lead to users holding bitcoin as a speculative asset rather than using it as a medium of exchange.
Q: What impact does halving have on bitcoin?
The obvious impact is that the amount of newly mined bitcoins per day will fall from about 1,800 to 900 bitcoins and the daily revenue of miners will reduce by half. This decrease in the rate of bitcoin creation tightens supply and some argue will lead to a bullish market and an increase in the price of bitcoin.
Meanwhile, the reduction of revenue for miners may squeeze out miners who are least efficient and therefore the computing power connected to the Bitcoin network may fall significantly.
My insight has increased, this may be general information, but sometimes this information is very useful for people who are new to the world of blockchain.