Hurray!!! The 18 millionth Bitcoin has been mined, leaving only 3 million out of the total 21 million Bitcoin in supply.
Why is this significant? While this milestone may seem irrelevant to some, this event is of significance to both Bitcoin enthusiasts and investors around the world; as it was widely celebrated.
What this event means is that Bitcoin’s algorithmically-enforced scarcity has become more achievable, and as with all cases of scarcity the increase in demand and limited coin supply will in most cases trigger an increase in price.
This scarcity and limited circulation supply, gives Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies an advantage over fiat monies as it increases their value. However for fiat, it is a different scenario as money is/can repeatedly printed.
In addition to the above event, the third Bitcoin halving since its creation is set to occur in about six months (May 2020) and this will further reduce Bitcoin’s block reward by half from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC; giving it a fair valuation of around $90,000 per coin.
Bitcoin halving which occurs every four years, has in the case of the past two (2012, 2016) halving events led to a rise in BTC price a year before and after halving. Notably seen in its ATH of $20,000 in December 2017. Â
Most analysts have referenced Btcoin’s previous halvings and predict that as those before it, this next halving will sky rocket BTC price higher.
The idea behind halving is to trickle the demand for Bitcoin thereby causing its price to surge. See twitter user Plan B analyse this.
Further analysis: https://twitter.com/rektcapital/status/1184551048746274822
Arguments for an increase in Bitcoin’s supply cap have been made by Matt Luonogo, a crypto enthusiast and founder of Fold who in a Twitter thread highlighted possible negative scenarios with regards to maintaining the BTC 21 million supply limit.
Luonogo claims that should the 21 million supply be maintained, and with miners reward reduced such that they now have to rely solely on transaction fees, then the security of the Bitcoin network may not hold and could face possible threats of reorganization of its blockchain.
Other critics (economists) say the deflationary system of Bitcoin’s hard supply cap isn’t entirely the best.
These arguments are however subject to further analysis and discussions.
Don’t worry, there are about 120 years before the last bitcoin block is mined.
The next 3 million bitcoins will be progressively slower to mine as a result of block reward halvings which occur every 210,000 blocks (about 4 years intervals) and reduce new bitcoin supply by 50 percent. The final bitcoin is expected to be mined in 2140.
What are your thoughts on this? Share in the comments.
