The supply of bitcoin was strictly constrained In this article, let’s examine the Bitcoin supply in 2023
Compared to other cryptocurrency coins Bitcoin is a highly erratic currency. Nakamoto put a strict limit on the bitcoin supply while creating it. The rate at which the bitcoin supply is increasing along a pre-set path is decreasing. More than 21 million bitcoins will never be in circulation. As a result, one should not be concerned about unforeseen fluctuations in the bitcoin supply. The bitcoin supply is extremely predictable. Let’s explore the Bitcoin supply in 2023. As of writing on March 9, 2023, there are 19.31 million bitcoins in circulation. One block of bitcoin transactions is verified by miners every ten minutes. 6.25 bitcoins are now awarded for validating a single bitcoin block. Thus, every day, about 900 bitcoins are issued into circulation. Bitcoin’s supply is limited. As a result, trading with another person will be the only option to obtain Bitcoin once the supply is reached. There can only ever be 21 million Bitcoins in circulation.
Experts predict that the total amount of Bitcoins issued will almost certainly never surpass this limit. It is so because the Bitcoin code base contains rounding operations. To impose a Bitcoin cap restriction, block rewards are frequently divided over time. There won’t be any more Bitcoin cryptocurrency created after the final 21 million have been mined. So, the only sources of income for Bitcoin miners will be the sale of their coins and transaction fees.
Although there are theoretically 21 million bitcoins available, 4 million of them have been irretrievably lost. Bitcoins can be misplaced if the owner misplaces the private key to a paper wallet or other cold storage wallet if the private key is lost, if the wallet is misplaced, or if the owner’s wallet or hard drive is lost. Without a private key, it is impossible to use or trade bitcoins because it is necessary to send them from one wallet to another. As owners were less vigilant when the coins were just worth pennies, many bitcoins were lost in the early years of the cryptocurrency. As they are not maintained on an exchange, which may be exposed to security threats, and are kept offline, cold storage wallets are the most secure way to hold bitcoins.
A sizeable fraction of the available bitcoins are owned by several investors who entered the Bitcoin market early. Whales are investors who own enough bitcoin to influence the market when they buy or sell. 5 million bitcoins, or around 28% of the entire supply, are now held by about 1,600 companies. From Bitcoin’s birth, Satoshi Nakamoto, the alleged creator (or group of founders), has kept 1 million bitcoins in their wallet without ever moving a single one. Even though some whales do sell and spend their bitcoins, most of them choose to keep with them, effectively removing them from the market.
No new bitcoins will be created after the maximum number of bitcoins has been achieved, even if that number ultimately falls slightly below 21 million. Bitcoin miners will still be compensated, but probably simply with transaction processing fees, for continuing to pool and process bitcoin transactions into blocks.
Bitcoin miners will undoubtedly be impacted when Bitcoin reaches its upper supply limit, but how much will depend on how Bitcoin develops as a cryptocurrency. Bitcoin miners might still be able to make money solely from transaction processing fees in 2140 if the Bitcoin blockchain handles a large volume of transactions.
