Bitcoin mining has increasingly become attractive due to lucrative incentives for miners to maximize their Bitcoin yield. When it first launched, miners received a reward of 50 Bitcoin for every block. Early Bitcoiners could mine 100 BTC in one day.
However, miners now receive 3.125 BTC after the fourth halving for validating a block. This reward has been halved four times since Bitcoin’s inception. Currently, over 19.8 million Bitcoins are in circulation, with only 1.5 million left to be mined before reaching the 21 million cap, expected by the year 2140.
Bitcoins finite supply is a defining part of Satoshi Nakamoto’s decentralized protocol. To engineer cryptocurrency with a predetermined limit, Bitcoin boasts scarcity, which increases Bitcoin’s demand and value over time.
The halving event in 2028 will reduce mining rewards to 1.5625 BTC per block. By February 20, 2035, we expect 99% of Bitcoin’s 21 million maximum supply to have been mined, which would leave approximately 20,790,000 BTC in circulation. At that point, miners will receive 0.78125 BTC per block, and the reward will be further reduced to 0.390625 BTC at the seventh halving in 2036. As Bitcoin approaches its next mining era, the cryptocurrency landscape emphasizes its scarcity foundation, changing the context of today’s anti-fiat model.
After all 21 million Bitcoin are mined, miners incentives will shift solely to transaction fees for verifying and securing blockchain transactions. Post-2140, there will be zero block rewards, but the network will continue to operate and remain secure because of these transaction fees.
