Bitcoin’s limited supply of 21 million tokens still stokes controversy and speculation in the cryptocurrency community. As it stands today, with just under 19.85 million Bitcoin already mined and circulating the globe, there are only about 1.15 million left to be mined. The final Bitcoin is expected to be mined some time near 2140.
At pen time, Bitcoin was trading at $94,181—it’s down from its January all time high of $109,114. The ever-declining supply, along with rising demand, creates a powerful force behind Bitcoin’s value proposition.
Bitcoin’s clockwork-like design includes halving events, which take place roughly every four years. These events halve the mining reward. As such, they delay how quickly new Bitcoins are brought into circulation. The most recent halving slashed that reward in half again, to just 3.125 BTC. Pretty soon, the next halving will cut it down even further to 1.5625 BTC.
Luke Broyles, a noted cryptocurrency analyst, recently claimed that the final Satoshi, the smallest unit of Bitcoin, will demand infinite energy to create. Broyles suggests the energy needed to mine the final Bitcoin will exceed the total energy expended to mine the first 20 million.
Recently, Adam Back, a Bitcoin luminary and cryptographer behind password-hashing that Bitcoin miners use, has emphasized the importance of Bitcoin’s 21 million cap. He argues that this cap is essential for preserving scarcity and security in the ecosystem. This limited supply is a key part of Bitcoin’s design, shielding it from inflation and from centralized manipulation.
Our favorite thing about this amazing community was their sense of humor. They marked the occasion by celebrating what they think is the birthday of Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. And though we don’t know who Satoshi is, their invention—bitcoin—is hailed as a financial revolution.
