The Bitcoin blockchain has reached a major milestone. The 20 millionth bitcoin has officially been mined. With a total supply permanently capped at 21 million, this moment marks a monumental step towards its enduring scarcity.
Moreover, the event highlights one of the key features of the network, its transparency and predictability. Unlike traditional fiat currencies, which can be printed practically at will and without limit, bitcoin follows a very strict issuance schedule embedded in its protocol. In the case of bitcoin, code is law, and this code cannot be changed (at least not without massive market turbulence and seismic shifts across the industry), and it can be publicly verified by anyone interested.
Digital scarcity, but at a new level
Data from BiTBO shows that at the time of writing this text, 95.24 percent of the total bitcoin supply has been created, which represents exactly 20,000,312.5 bitcoins.
The remaining million pieces will become increasingly difficult to mine due to the way the network is structured to function. Halving occurs approximately every four years, reducing the rewards miners receive for adding new blocks to the network by 50 percent. Essentially, this halves the new supply, hence the name. In other words, the longer time passes, the harder it will be to mine bitcoin. In fact, some estimates predict that the last bitcoin will be mined in the year 2140.
