The block reward is halved based on the number of blocks in the chain, not on time. The number of blocks per hour the Bitcoin mining network produces depends on the network hashing power and the network difficulty. More hashing power will produce more blocks per hour, so the network adjusts the difficulty to try to make blocks appear at an average rate of 6 block per hour (1 block every 10 minutes). The difficulty is adjusted every 2016 blocks, which means that if more hashing power is added to the network after a difficulty change, blocks will appear more often than once every 10 minutes and if hashing power leaves the network, blocks will appear less ofter.
So, when people say that the next reward halving will approximately occur in 2017, they are assuming that blocks will be created at the rate of 6 per hour. That assumption isn't guaranteed to be correct because the network hashing power is variable. It is guaranteed and certain that the next reward halving will occur at block 420000, but the exact date and time that block will be added to the chain is not certain.
Topic: regarding BTC 21m cap and difficulties (Read 437 times)
No I heard it will keep getting cut in half every 4 years until, like others said 2140
There have been a few places around stating that mining would end in 2040, but I have no clue where they're getting that from. Some cloud - hashing site has that date (2040) one their front page as the date until BTCs will be mined, and I kept thinking that's a pretty glaring error for a company selling futures on hashing rigs.
You also forget that the amount of bitcoins earned per block will be cut in half time and time over again. it used to be 50 reward per, now its 25. It will keep getting chopped up which will make it take even longer
i heard its only going to be cut one more time to 12.5 i need a double confirmation tho.
Not 15+ years to mine the remaining ~10million coin - but 125 years - they will be mined until the year 2140. see: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Controlled_Currency_Supply tho, after 2030, the block reward will less than 1BTC / block.
You also forget that the amount of bitcoins earned per block will be cut in half time and time over again. it used to be 50 reward per, now its 25. It will keep getting chopped up which will make it take even longer
Hi guys,
im new to btc but can someone clarify something, as of right now there are ~11m btc in circulation which mean there are 10m to be mined. is it really going to take 15+ more years (i read that it will be in 2040 that btc will hit the cap) to reach the cap??
which mean, the difficulty of mining the btc will "exponentially" gets harder? i mean it only took 2010 to 2013 to mined 11m btc.
thanks in advance
im new to btc but can someone clarify something, as of right now there are ~11m btc in circulation which mean there are 10m to be mined. is it really going to take 15+ more years (i read that it will be in 2040 that btc will hit the cap) to reach the cap??
which mean, the difficulty of mining the btc will "exponentially" gets harder? i mean it only took 2010 to 2013 to mined 11m btc.
thanks in advance
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