Bitcoin halving – what is it? Main dates of miners’ reward reduction for bitcoin mining

Bitcoin halving – what is it? Main dates of miners’ reward reduction for bitcoin mining

Bitcoin is truly the king of the digital currency market. For your information, all events that occur with digital assets directly affect the entire crypto community. In today’s article, we will discuss the topic of BTC halving in detail. Also, we will try to predict the price of bitcoin in 2020 if halving does occur.

Bitcoin halving – what is it?

A Bitcoin halving is a certain event that halves the miners’ reward for maintaining the network. It happens once every 210 thousand blocks, or in other words, every 4 years. Currently, the miners’ reward for 1 Bitcoin block is 12.5 BTC. That is, after the upcoming halving, the reward will be 50% – 6.25 BTC.

This process can reliably protect the Bitcoin ecosystem from too much inflation. It also makes it possible to maintain the shortage of the cryptocurrency asset itself. Therefore, Bitcoin is often compared to gold rather than fiat money. Why? It’s really simple. Unlike such assets, gold reserves and the amount of Bitcoin can be determined in advance. I think everyone understands that after each halving, mining BTC becomes more difficult.

Bitcoin halving: when was the last one?

On July 09, 2016, the last bitcoin halving took place on the 420,000 block. At that time, experts estimated one bitcoin at $657.61.

Nowadays, the value of bitcoin varies around the 10 thousand dollar mark. Knowing this, we can calculate that the last halving increased the value of BTC by 1485.84 percent.

The main dates of Bitcoin halving

In order to realize the significance of the upcoming event, let’s consider the following facts. Some charts made by industry experts show that the genesis block was mined on January 03, 2009. But the most interesting thing is that all subsequent halving had quite significant consequences.

After another 50 percent reduction in miner rewards, the value of bitcoin could not hastily follow all the changes. That is why it did not reach a new record high. This happened because the market needed a lot of time to get used to the current conditions of cryptocurrency shortage.

For example, after the 2016 halving, bitcoin managed to reach its own record high of $19,843 only at the end of 2017.

If we compare the figures with the halving that took place in 2012, we see the following. Back then, bitcoin’s halving showed us a more rounded arc that led to a record-breaking value of $1,149 at the time. Such changes took a full 1 year and 3 days.

Bitcoin halving: when is the next one?

It is scheduled for 05/17/2020, when 630,000 blocks will be mined. How did we manage to calculate the exact date? It’s simple:

– Miners mine one bitcoin block in 10 minutes;

– 144 blocks can be mined every day;

– as of August 18, 19, the current block was numbered 590,675;

– that is, 39,325 blocks remain before the next halving;

– 39325/144 = 273 days;

– date of writing (08/18/19) + 273 = 05/17/2020.

Expected Bitcoin halving

The question arises: “Will the historical high be reached again?”

No one knows. Historically, after a Bitcoin halving, market volatility increases. In fact, this is a kind of reaction to the decline in bitcoin’s arrival on the market.

It’s worth remembering that approximately 30 percent of the available BTC coins have been lost due to the negligence of miners. The deaths of owners, breakdowns of mining devices, and the lack of additional private keys also had an impact. All of this has added to Bitcoin’s scarcity.