Bitcoin mining - on its final stages?

Unlike monetary currencies that can be reproduced whenever there is a shortage, Crypto currency is the opposite. In fact there are only 21 million bitcoins that can be mined , no more no less!

And because of the spike of interest in bitcoin mining some of you may ask :

How many bitcoins are left for mining?

Today approximately around 18.5 million bitcoins have been mined! So that leaves about three million bitcoins up for grabs! In just over a decade after bitcoin was introduced as a currency, that 18.5 million bitcoins was mined,. And now there are only three million left for us Crypto seekers, So..... Are we really going down to the final stages of bitcoin mining?

I bet you're hoping the answer is no!! But , it is true, in a sense it is true. Given the fact that a large chunk of bitcoin had already been mined, the good news is the time to get to that final bitcoin is on our side, well at least the way things are going shows that is indeed on our side.

Here's why:

The process of mining bitcoins that rewards miners with a chunk of bitcoin provided they are successfully verified of a block adapts over time.

How?

Launched for the first time, the bitcoin reward was at 50 BTC,. Then came the year 2012 it halved to 25 BTC, fast forward four years later on 2016 it halved again to 12.5 BTC, and it will continue to halved approximately every four years .

What does this means?

It means that the mining rewards will keep on reducing over time, the smaller the bitcoin rewards for miners , the longer time it will take to mine the final bitcoin.

How much time do we have until that final bitcoin?

Well the final bitcoin will probably be mined on the year ""2140"".

I guess that timeline is not much of a worry for this generation!