Halving
The halving is the most important event of Bitcoin’s blockchain and occurs around every four years (more precisely after every 210,000 blocks mined) when the supply of new bitcoins and the reward for mining them is cut in half.
The unknown inventor of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, believed that scarcity could create value where there was none before. For this reason, he/she/they decided to create Bitcoin with a hard cap of 21 million units after that, no more bitcoins can be mined.
The halving -also known as the halvening- is the most relevant event of Bitcoin’s blockchain. It consists of halving the miner’s rewards (that they receive to process transactions) and decreasing bitcoin’s available supply, bringing a rise in the cryptocurrency’s value (scarcity).
Halving affects all stakeholders, miners, and investors and usually occurs approximately every four years, more precisely after every 210,000 blocks mined. When all 21 million bitcoins are mined, miners will be rewarded with fees for processing transactions, which network users will pay. These fees ensure that miners still have the incentive to mine and keep the network going.
Bitcoin last halving occurred on May 11, 2020 (in a block reward of 6.25 BTC), and the next will happen in 2024. The final halving will be in 2140 when the number of bitcoins reaches its maximum supply of 21 million.
