As we approach the 4th Bitcoin halving, coded by #satoshi into the protocol, I thought I’d briefly describe what the halving is for those who may have questions.

Blocks contain all transaction data within the Bitcoin base layer. The block subsidy, or block reward, is the reward paid to miners for discovering a block and completing the Proof of Work. These block subsidies are newly mined #bitcoin.

Every 210,000 blocks (roughly 4 years), the block subsidy is cut in half, reinforcing the scarce nature of Bitcoin. Blocks confirm, on average, every 10 minutes, so as of mid to late April, the block reward will be halved to ₿3.125 (312,500,000 sats).

Bitcoin is finite with programmatically guaranteed reductions in the rate of inflation every 4 years. Similar to how gold is locked in earth, Bitcoin is locked in time. Unlike gold, new Bitcoin supply cannot be mined if demand increases. It will take over 100 years to mine the remaining ~ ₿1m.