Bitcoin Halving Countdown

What is halving?

A block reward halving is an event when the rate at which new cryptocurrency units are generated is cut by a factor of two. In particular, it refers to the reduction of the mining reward twice for miners. Satoshi Nakamoto has implemented halving into the Bitcoin protocol to happen every 210,000 blocks or roughly every 4 years up to the moment when all the 21 million coins will have been mined. After 32 halvings (presumably in 2140), the emission of bitcoin will end.

Have halvings happened earlier?

Halvings have already happened three times in the Bitcoin network history: on November 28, 2012, July 9, 2016, and May 11, 2020. At the dawn of the Bitcoin era, miners earned 50 BTC for adding a new block. After the first halving, this number was 25 BTC. After the second one – only 12,5 BTC per block. The third halving on May 2020 reduced the block subsidy to 6.25 BTC.

How does Bitcoin halving work?

Halving is an integral part of the Bitcoin system, which was implemented by Satoshi Nakamoto . You can see a fragment of code that makes Bitcoin halving possible below. It is written in the code that the block reward will be cut in two every 210 000 blocks.

Why is Bitcoin halving a game-changer?

Bitcoin halving affects both miners and holders of the cryptocurrency. For the first ones, the reward will be reduced by 50%, which means they will get two times less reward than before for the same job. Here market forces come into play: soaring Bitcoin’s scarcity has a strong influence on the price of Bitcoin. Previous halvings have shown that Bitcoin halving triggers remarkable growth not only in Bitcoin’s price but on the whole cryptocurrency market: in the one-year rise, it has changed the price from $11 to $1,100 after the first halving and from $600 to $20,000 at the peak moment after the second one. The consequences of the third halving remain unknown as yet.

What to expect after May 2020 halving?

Opinions of the experts diverged. Despite the whispers about the crypto market reaching maturity, strong halving foretastes in the financial community, and the possibility that the impact of halving is already included in the current BTC price, 2020 has started in anticipation of the inflection point. It surged 31% in January showing the best performance since 2013, and BTC price keeps growing after the halving.

How is SwapSpace halving countdown timer calculated?

Searching for the exact day when halving is going to befall, you may face certain difficulties. Indeed, the more times you ask, the more variants you get. Why is our timer different from the others? It is based not on the average block mining time, which is commonly cited as 10 minutes, but on live blockchain statistics. This timer may alternate, but still, it is the most precise halving countdown.

Visit our blog for further reading on halving: What Will the Halving Do with the Bitcoin Price? and What is Halving?