On April 19, or whenever a bitcoin miner mines block number 840,000, the amount of bitcoin {{BTC}} entering into circulation will halve from about 900 a day to 450. This event, colloquially known as the halving (sometimes halvening), looms large in the Bitcoin mindshare, one of those things that makes Bitcoin Bitcoin. Perhaps because it only comes around on Leap Years (so far), bitcoiners tend to look forward to the halving more than most crypto holidays like Bitcoin Pizza Day or the anniversary of Satoshi Nakamoto publishing the white paper. But it won’t be around forever.
This roundup is part of CoinDesk’s “Future of Bitcoin” package.
Once all 21 million bitcoins are mined, the halving will have served its purpose and cease (likely in 2140). Why did Nakamoto make it this way? No one knows. Just like there’s no real insight into why he chose a 21 million cap or Jan. 9 as launch day. There are many, many guesstimates that try to make sense of these seemingly arbitrary elements of Bitcoin’s design. Because if there’s one thing certain about Bitcoin, it’s that it tends to split opinions.
And so, with an event as anticipated as the halving there are certainly things to argue over. Is it “priced in” (meaning will the reduction in supply of bitcoins entering the market cause a rally)? Will the reduced revenues drive bitcoin miners bankrupt? Will this time be any different?
CoinDesk turned to the crypto community to get their say:
Priced in?
Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital:
I am a longtime halving nihilist. The halving is *what it means* for bitcoin to be deflationary. It’s been priced in since the first time someone bought bitcoin because it has a fixed supply. The timing of the halving has been baked in since Bitcoin was first launched six years ago.
People drawing charts and rainbows and all this nonsense over an event that has deterministically happened four times (on an asset that already goes up almost every single year) is pseudoscientific nonsense. But whatever, it’s a good story.
Austin Campbell, assistant professor at Columbia Business School:
As bitcoin gains more of a foothold in…
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