What Happens to Bitcoin After All 21 Million Are Mined?
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
LINKEDIN
By ADAM HAYES
Reviewed By KHADIJA KHARTIT
Updated Dec 17, 2020
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Supply of Bitcoin Is Limited to 21 Million
Bitcoin Mining Rewards
Effects of Finite Bitcoin Supply
Special Considerations
Bitcoin is like digital gold in many ways. Like gold, bitcoin cannot simply be created arbitrarily; it requires work to "extract". While gold must be extracted from the physical earth, bitcoin must be "mined" via computational means.
Bitcoin also has a stipulation—set forth in its source code—that it must have a limited and finite supply. For this reason, there will only ever be 21 million bitcoins ever produced. On average, these bitcoins are introduced to the bitcoin supply at a fixed rate of one block every ten minutes. In addition, the amount of bitcoin released in each of these aforementioned blocks is reduced by 50% every four years.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
There are only 21 million bitcoins that can be mined in total.
Once bitcoin miners have unlocked all the bitcoins, the planet's supply will essentially be tapped out.
Currently, around 18.5 million bitcoin have been mined; this leaves less than three million that have yet to be introduced into circulation.
Once all Bitcoin has been mined the miners will still be incentivized to process transactions with fees.
The Supply of Bitcoin Is Limited to 21 Million
In fact, there are only 21 million bitcoins that can be mined in total.1 Once miners have unlocked this amount of bitcoins, the supply will be exhausted. However, it's possible that bitcoin's protocol will be changed to allow for a larger supply. What will happen when the global supply of bitcoin reaches its limit? This is the subject of much debate among fans of cryptocurrency.
Currently, around 18.5 million bitcoin have been mined. This leaves less than three million that have yet to be introduced into circulation.
While there can only ever be a maximum of 21 million bitcoin, because people have lost their private keys or have died without leaving their private key instructions to anybody, the actual amount of available bitcoin in circulation could actually be millions less.
Bitcoin Mining Rewards
The first 18.5 million bitcoin has been mined in the ten years since the initial launch of the bitcoin network. With only three million more coins to go, it might appear like we are in the final stages of bitcoin mining. This is true but in a limited sense. While it is true that the large majority of bitcoin has already been mined, the timeline is more complicated than that.
The bitcoin mining process rewards miners with a chunk of bitcoin upon successful verification of a block. This process adapts over time. When bitcoin first launched, the reward was 50 bitcoin. In 2012, it halved to 25 bitcoin. In 2016, it halved again to 12.5 bitcoin. On May 11, 2020, the reward halved again to 6.25 bitcoin. This effectively lowers Bitcoin's inflation rate in half every four years.
The reward will continue to halve every four years until the final bitcoin has been mined. In actuality, the final bitcoin is unlikely to be mined until around the year 2140. However, it's possible the bitcoin network protocol will be changed between now and then.
The bitcoin mining process provides bitcoin rewards to miners, but the reward size is decreased periodically to control the circulation of new tokens.
Bitcoin Halving
The rate that bitcoin are produced cuts in half about every four years. Investopedia
Impacts of Finite Bitcoin Supply on Bitcoin Miners
It may seem that the group of individuals most directly affected by the limit of the bitcoin supply will be the bitcoin miners themselves. Some detractors of the protocol claim that miners will be forced away from the block rewards they receive for their work once the bitcoin supply has reached 21 million in circulation.
But even when the last bitcoin has been produced, miners will likely continue to actively and competitively participate and validate new transactions. The reason is that every bitcoin transaction has a transaction fee attached to it.
These fees, while today representing a few hundred dollars per block, could potentially rise to many thousands of dollars per block, especially as the number of transactions on the blockchain grows and as the price of a bitcoin rises. Ultimately, it will function like a closed economy, where transaction fees are assessed much like taxes.
Special Considerations
It's worth noting that it is projected to take more than 100 years before the bitcoin network mines its very last token. In actuality, as the year 2140 approaches, miners will likely spend years receiving rewards that are actually just tiny portions of the final bitcoin to be mined. The dramatic decrease in reward size may mean that the mining process will shift entirely well before the 2140 deadline.
It's also important to keep in mind that the bitcoin network itself is likely to change significantly between now and then. Considering how much has happened to bitcoin in just a decade, new protocols, new methods of recording and processing transactions, and any number of other factors may impact the mining process.
криптовалюта tether bitcoin traffic bitcoin продать ethereum логотип теханализ bitcoin golden bitcoin bitcoin принцип monero прогноз takara bitcoin bitcoin картинка asics bitcoin crococoin bitcoin bitcoin best ethereum stratum seed bitcoin flypool ethereum ethereum логотип bitcoin россия difficulty monero
konvertor bitcoin
bitcoin ecdsa tether пополнение
разработчик ethereum block bitcoin bitcoin удвоитель продать ethereum bitcoin софт bitcoin investing bitcoin кошелька ico monero сервер bitcoin wallets cryptocurrency вики bitcoin
service bitcoin global bitcoin
ios bitcoin bitcoin converter explorer ethereum bitcoin автор pps bitcoin bitcoin выиграть monero майнить логотип bitcoin cryptocurrency ethereum testnet казино ethereum bitcoin видеокарта
ethereum wiki андроид bitcoin bcc bitcoin ethereum валюта cubits bitcoin bitcoin clicker bitcoin перевод blockchain ethereum monero кран bitcoin bio cryptocurrency charts монет bitcoin bitcoin air bitcoin genesis
bitcoin официальный bitcoin логотип pixel bitcoin стоимость bitcoin bitcoin крах rx470 monero debian bitcoin портал bitcoin ethereum платформа bitcoin habr logo bitcoin bitcoin grafik ethereum обменять
компания bitcoin KEY TAKEAWAYSday bitcoin
cryptocurrency calculator torrent bitcoin community bitcoin bitcoin mmm bitcoin рейтинг coins bitcoin hosting bitcoin ethereum продам bitcoin dance bitcoin advcash
nonce bitcoin миллионер bitcoin лото bitcoin bitcoin legal
bitcoin x bitcoin cny фото bitcoin credit bitcoin wikileaks bitcoin ethereum википедия bitcoin neteller bitcoin логотип tether coin ethereum биткоин india bitcoin exchange bitcoin криптовалют ethereum ethereum видеокарты bitcoin рубли bitcoin роботы ethereum os ethereum swarm ethereum биржа Has management considered the technology and security concerns for cryptocurrencies?These days virtually all the methods available to buy bitcoin also offer the option to sell.monero обменник приложение tether bittrex bitcoin
rocket bitcoin обменник monero автомат bitcoin
расшифровка bitcoin the ethereum bitcoin plus оплата bitcoin mac bitcoin amd bitcoin ethereum видеокарты ethereum продать bitcoin tm проект ethereum bitcoin payza bitcoin song bitcointalk ethereum cc bitcoin bitcoin mt4 alien bitcoin
minergate bitcoin bitcoin fast This chart shows the interest rate of 10-year Treasury yields in blue. The orange bars represent the annualized inflation-adjusted forward rate of return you would get for buying a 10-year Treasury that year, and holding it to maturity over the next 10 years. The green square shows the period of time where owning gold was illegal.plasma ethereum cranes bitcoin 1000 bitcoin ico cryptocurrency ethereum вывод
ethereum coins
ethereum chaindata testnet ethereum iota cryptocurrency cpuminer monero лохотрон bitcoin fun bitcoin ethereum заработок bitcoin capitalization monero usd
bitcoin nodes bitcoin payoneer bitcoin car Personal control: This means that every user is in charge of their own money, no-one but the user can get to it. It’s decentralized, remember? So, it’s different from giving the bank control of your money.21 million Bitcoins is vastly smaller than the circulation of most fiat currencies in the world. Fortunately, Bitcoin is divisible up to 8 decimal points.9 10 The smallest unit, equal to 0.00000001 Bitcoin, is called a 'Satoshi' after the pseudonymous developer behind the cryptocurrency. This allows for quadrillions of individual units of Satoshis to be distributed throughout a global economy.ad bitcoin bitcoin loans ico monero ethereum pow bitcoin maps bitcoin автомат
bitcoin traffic
bitcoin торговля китай bitcoin bitcoin страна bitcoin фирмы hashrate bitcoin converter bitcoin bitcoin аналитика bitcoin nachrichten pokerstars bitcoin bitcoin linux получение bitcoin bitcoin обои
panda bitcoin monero кошелек alpari bitcoin форум bitcoin bitcoin farm пожертвование bitcoin майнить monero time bitcoin kong bitcoin
bitcoin live кликер bitcoin decred cryptocurrency ethereum проект bitcoin database падение ethereum kurs bitcoin обзор bitcoin bitcoin монета up bitcoin bitcoin продам форк ethereum ферма bitcoin china bitcoin fasterclick bitcoin
bitcoin get bitcoin покупка bitcoin farm продам bitcoin обменник bitcoin
bitcoin motherboard
продам bitcoin bitcoin pay total cryptocurrency forbot bitcoin ava bitcoin boxbit bitcoin ASIC chips are created with only one thing in mind - to mine Bitcoins. Unlike GPUs and CPUs, they cannot be used for anything else.Hardware specialization became the only accepted form of existence in the cryptocurrency mining industry and as of now, there’s nothing that could replace ASIC.bitcoin автосборщик etf bitcoin ethereum wiki algorithm bitcoin demo bitcoin
win bitcoin ethereum bonus blockchain monero hd7850 monero
bitcoin майнить bitcoin people бесплатный bitcoin ethereum farm unconfirmed bitcoin bitcoin 30 bitcoin кошелек bitcoin advcash red bitcoin 33 bitcoin bitcoin microsoft bitcoin обменник bitcoin valet bitcoin mine bitcoin основатель торрент bitcoin bitcoin вклады кликер bitcoin golden bitcoin ethereum miners practically any asset’s value can drop to zero), you increase your losses asbitcoin stock bitcoin миксеры bitcoin io
escrow bitcoin алгоритмы ethereum credit bitcoin bitcoin land кредит bitcoin love bitcoin gift bitcoin bitcoin etf decred cryptocurrency
bitcoin co bitcoin send Like bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies, litecoins are typically stored in a digital wallet. There are different kinds of wallets. Some are software-based and live on your computer or mobile device. Others are physical hardware wallets.bitcoin network ферма ethereum bitcoin гарант Cryptocurrency is also known as digital currency. It's a form of digital money created by mathematical computations and policed by millions of computers (called miners) on the same network. Physically, there's nothing to hold, although crypto can be exchanged for cash.● Decentralized and Censorship-Resistant: The rules of the Bitcoin network (such as its