At the beginning of 2020, 12.5 new bitcoins were added to the network every 10 minutes through virtual "mining". In May, this number will be halved to 6.25. In 2024, it will drop to approximately 3,125 and this process will continue until all 21 million are mined (which is estimated to occur around 2140).
At the beginning of 2020, 12.5 new bitcoins were added to the network every 10 minutes through virtual "mining". In May, this number will be halved to 6.25. In 2024, it will drop to approximately 3,125 and this process will continue until all 21 million are mined (which is estimated to occur around 2140).
Even though Bitcoin is digital money, it cannot be created forever. Verifiable scarcity is central to its value proposition. Two concepts relating to scarcity are fundamental to the Bitcoin protocol. First, the number of bitcoins will not exceed 21 million. (At the end of 2020, there were less than 2.5 million bitcoins left to be virtually mined). Second, the number of new bitcoins added to the network will be halved every four years. This second concept is called halving.