Home
News
- Bitcoin halving, aka, bitcoin block reward halving is a phenomenon where the reward gained from mining a block halved after four years.
- The third halving is scheduled in May 2020 when the reward for mining a block would get reduced from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC.
Bitcoin halving, aka, bitcoin block reward halving is a phenomenon where the reward gained from mining a block halved after four years. When Bitcoin came into existence in 2009, one could manage to get 50BTC for mining a block. The reward will keep on halving every four years until it reaches a stable value of 21 million.
Since its introduction, two such halvings have occurred, one in November 2012 and the second one in July 2016. The third halving is scheduled in May 2020 when the reward for mining a block would get reduced from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC.
The answer why bitcoins halves is given in the law of demand and supply. If a commodity is not limited in quantity while being circulated. The units available in the market will be more than demand.
Thus, one would need to sell the commodity at a lower price to get it moving; this law holds for Bitcoins as well. The reward for Bitcoins halved once 210000 blocks mined. This halving reduces inflation and allows more coins to circulated in the market.
This phenomenon is what makes Bitcoin different from fiat currency and makes it more valuable. However, this rule is not applied only on Bitcoins, other cryptocurrencies such as ETC, ZEN, XZC will also experience their first halving in 2020.
Right now, BTC will halve in May 2020, with the reward getting reduced to 6.25 BTC. ZCoin will see its first halving in September 2020, and the reward would be reduced to 6.25XZC.
ETC will also see a similar phenomenon, but instead of halving, the value will be reduced by 20%, putting the reward at 3.2ETC. This reduction will occur in May 2020.
Another currency that is going to see a reduction similar to ETC is DASH, which will see a decrease of 7.14%, reducing its value to 3.34 units in May 2020.
Steve Anderson is an Australian crypto enthusiast. He is a specialist in management and trading for over 5 years. Steve has worked as a crypto trader, he loves learning about decentralisation, understanding the true potential of the blockchain.
