Bitcoin has been around since 2009, but it has only been on the average investor’s map in recent years. This is probably due to the fact that the price of Bitcoin has absolutely exploded. Even after falling over 50% from its 2021 high. Bitcoin has still grown over 250% in the past year and over 32,500% since 2014. While many investors are excited to get rich by investing in Bitcoin. Few people understand exactly what Bitcoin is or how it works. For example, you may have heard that the total number of Bitcoins that can exist is limited.
Bitcoin Is Limited to 21 Million
Once all 21 million Bitcoin have been mined, the network will largely operate the same as it does now, but with one crucial difference for miners.
Bitcoin’s 21 million supply cap is meant to control inflation that might, otherwise, result from an unlimited supply. But it has inflated the cryptocurrency’s prices by making it a scarce commodity.
Nearly 90% of all Bitcoin has already been mined
On December 13, the Bitcoin cryptocurrency reached 90% of its maximum supply. Research by blockchain revealed that out of the total supply of 21 million Bitcoins, 18.89 million have already been mined and are circulating in the market. The milestone comes almost 12 years after the first block, consisting of 50 Bitcoins, was mined on January 9, 2009.
It may seem that the world’s most popular cryptocurrency is close to being exhausted, but Bitcoin’s halving schedules predict that the remaining 10 percent supply will sustain until February 2140, as per blockchain.com.
Also, the total number of Bitcoins is not available for distribution on the open market. Chainalysis, an analysis company, revealed that around 3.7 million Bitcoins have already been lost due to various reasons including loss of access to their private key, death, etc.
As Bitcoin’s supply is nearing its limit, here are some notable implications it will have on investors and on the blockchain network.
What will miners do when all the Bitcoin has been mined?
The rarer an item, the higher its value. Growing demand in the face of limited supply is causing prices to skyrocket. Additionally, there is only a portion of the world’s oldest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, in circulation.
The blockchain-based solution was pitched as a possible store of value by the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto. He is a real-life identity remains a mystery and who has since disappeared never to be heard from again
The source code he wrote comes with a single condition: a strict limit on the number of Bitcoins that can be produced. Which means in the face of increasing popularity, the price of the cryptocurrency will increase as more and more people buy the concept.
3 comments
Comments are closed.