Ethereum

Bitcoin Completes Fourth Halving, Ushering in a New Era for BTC

that much bitcoin halving Here. Shortly after 8 PM ET on Friday, the Bitcoin network successfully underwent a programmed decline in newly minted BTC. After the 840,000th Bitcoin block was created, successful miners now earn 3.125 BTC per completed block in addition to network transaction fees.

This moment, which marks the fourth halving event in Bitcoin history, has been widely anticipated in the cryptocurrency community in recent weeks. Meanwhile, according to data from CoinGecko, the price of Bitcoin rose slightly on this day, trading less than 1%, at about $64,000.

Changes to Bitcoin software ultimately lead to the goal of digital scarcity. Bitcoin’s anonymous inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, set a hard cap of 21 million bitcoins for the asset’s total supply when the world’s first cryptocurrency was launched in 2009.

There are currently over 19.6 million Bitcoins in circulation. This is said to represent the majority of Bitcoins that will be created in the future. Blockchain.com. Halvings are expected to occur approximately every four years until the last halving occurs in the mid-22nd century.

Bitcoin blocks (a series of transactions added to the Bitcoin blockchain approximately every 10 minutes) determine the rate at which new halvings occur. For example, about 210,000 blocks ago, miner rewards decreased from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC in 2020.

Computers around the world running Bitcoin software help keep the network secure. Racing to solve complex mathematical puzzles, if at least 50% agree that the transaction is valid, the miner who solves the problem first is awarded a sum of Bitcoin.

As a result of the halving, the cost for miners to produce Bitcoin effectively doubles. Although this event does not directly increase the amount of energy consumed by the Bitcoin network, it does create headwinds for miners with small operations or limited computational resources.

Constant competition between miners solving complex problems ensures that fraudulent transactions never enter Bitcoin’s blockchain. And 15 years after Bitcoin was created, the process appears to be proceeding as smoothly as designed.

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