On April 1, the 19 millionth Bitcoin was mined, meaning there are only two million BTC left to be mined on the network. What happens now?
On Friday, April 1, 2022 at 16:21:29 UTC, the Bitcoin number 19 million in the Block 73002, which means that there are only two million coins left to be mined on the network, as there can never be more than 21 million BTC in circulation.
With only two million coins left to be mined on the network, Bitcoin has become a very rare commodity, so its price is expected to skyrocket in the coming months.
In just 13 years since its creation, the 90% of total supply of Bitcoin has been mined. So it's natural to ask: when will all the remaining Bitcoin be mined? Well, although it may seem unbelievable, it's something that we won't see anytime soon, since the last Bitcoin is expected to be mined in 2140, almost 120 years from now.
El halving the Bitcoin
How is this possible? Because of the halving processThis is an automated process that halves the Bitcoin each miner receives as a reward for creating a block.
This process was created as an incentive for proof-of-work mining. In this way, every 210.000 blocks, Bitcoin issuance is halved. This usually happens every 4 years.
Thus, when Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first block back in 2009, he earned 50 BTC (worth about $2,3 million today). However, in 2022, a miner earns 6,25 BTC per block (about $300.000), which is usually divided among several participants in a mining pool.
What will happen when the last Bitcoin is mined?
In this sense, the next halving is expected to take place on March 2, 2024. At that time, each block will offer 3,125 BTC. In addition, the halving process will continue every four years, until the reward for each block is 0,00000001 BTC, that is: a Satoshi, the smallest, indivisible unit of Bitcoin.
Once the has been extracted last Bitcoin, the miners already will not receive block rewardsInstead, they will be rewarded with transaction fees as they will have to keep working to validate each transaction.
At this point, Bitcoin will become a scarce commodity, which will lead to an increase in its price. Some experts have pointed out that the price could reach over $1 million, while others believe that it will become a store of value, which will lead to increased adoption and its price skyrocketing above $2 million.
In fact, experts and analysts expect that once the entire supply of Bitcoin is mined, the cryptocurrency find a more defined purpose, either as a store of value or as a digital asset.
If it becomes a store of value, miners could take advantage of it charge very high rates to all those high-volume institutional transactions, as well as large block transactions. While leaving the small, everyday transactions to more efficient Layer 2s, such as the Lightning Network.
The bad part of the absence of block rewards
However, a less beneficial scenario for network users could also occur. What if transaction rewards were not beneficial for mining pools?
In this case, it could be created mining cartels; mining groups that manipulate the market at will to control transaction prices.
On the other hand, miners could unite to hide new valid blocks and release them later as orphan blocks that are not confirmed by the Bitcoin network. This practice can increase block processing time and ensure that excessively high fees are paid for new blocks when they are finally released.
The Dilemma of the Lost Bitcoin
On the other hand, also rIt is impossible to know how many of the 21 million coins will be in circulation., as many of them have been lost forever, locked in wallets that have been destroyed or whose passwords have been lostThis, in Nakamoto's own words, will make the rest of the coins even more expensive.
“Think of this as a donation to everyone,” Satoshi Nakamoto said of the lost coins dilemma. In fact, a Chainalysis study estimates that the 20% of all circulating Bitcoin has been lost forever in this way.
