\u0938\u0924\u094b\u0937\u0940 \u0928\u093e\u0915\u093e\u092e\u094b\u0924\u094b<\/a> wanted to avoid those fiat issues in Bitcoin, so, he designed the whole system with a limited supply of spendable coins \u2014from the beginning. The miners will \u201cdiscover\u201d only 21 million bitcoins ever<\/strong>, and far fewer each time, as the years go by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In case you didn\u2019t know, there\u2019s a thing called \u201chalving<\/a>\u201d on the Bitcoin network. It occurs every four years: the block rewards are reduced by 50% (the half) for all miners. From 2009 to 2012, the block reward for the miners was 50 BTC. In November of that last year, the reward was cut to 25 BTC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, in 2016, another split reduced the reward to 12.5 BTC. And we had the last halving in 2020, which means that, currently, the miners<\/a> can only get 6.25 BTC per verified block. This programmed scarcity will go on until there\u2019s no more BTC to mine. According to the Bitcoin algorithm, we still have 30 halvings ahead (or 120 years) until there are no more newly minted BTC to discover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A crazy thing about this is that around 90% of the total Bitcoin supply was already mined <\/strong>by 2021<\/a>. Besides, of those already-minted coins, over<\/a> 20% have been lost forever. Between de never-spent Satoshi\u2019s stash (around 1 million BTC), numerous lost private keys<\/a> over the years, and some percentage of intentional coin burn (sent it to non-spendable addresses); it\u2019s very unlikely that about 4 million BTC could be reachable again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the end, they\u2019ll barely have (if there\u2019s luck) around 17 million usable bitcoins around. They, because \u201cwe\u201d will be probably dead by the year 2140 \u2014when the new bitcoins run out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s our funny question. Why 21 million? Why not 20 million, or 25, 30, 15, or 19? Why did Satoshi choose this exact number for the total supply? We now realize that the limited supply was necessary, but the selection of the amount is something harder to understand. And even, maybe, there\u2019s not a specific reason behind it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But that\u2019s just partially true because Satoshi talked about this<\/strong>. Luckily, sites like Nakamoto Studies Institute<\/a> still preserve the emails and other online material shared by the creator of 1 \u091f\u0940\u091f\u0940 6 \u091f\u0940<\/a> (before its disappearance in 2012), and the developers that worked with him. A specific email shared by the software engineer Mike Hearn (ex-member of Bitcoin \u0915\u094b\u0930<\/a>) seems to answer this question about the 21 million bitcoins. On it, Satoshi talks with Hearn about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy choice for the number of coins and distribution schedule was an educated guess. It was a difficult choice, because once the network is going it\u2019s locked in and we\u2019re stuck with it. I wanted to pick something that would make prices similar to existing currencies, but without knowing the future, that\u2019s very hard. I ended up picking something in the middle. If Bitcoin remains a small niche, it\u2019ll be worth less per unit than existing currencies. If you imagine it being used for some fraction of world commerce, then there\u2019s only going to be 21 million coins for the whole world, so it would be worth much more per unit.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n He guessed back then that 0.001 BTC could be worth<\/a> 1 EUR at some point (now is 30 times that, though). So, beyond the mere supply, he also chose to include 8 decimal places for easier distribution in the future. Other than this, we can say that the decision on \u201c21 million bitcoins\u201d was kind of arbitrary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, we also can vote for our favorite theory about this. It\u2019s said that \u201c21\u201d is a flexible number in math, which simplifies computing<\/strong>. This number is the eighth in the Fibonacci sequence, where each number is the sum of the two preceding ones. \u0907\u0938\u0915\u0947 \u0938\u093e\u0925 - \u0938\u093e\u0925<\/a>, it\u2019s also related to the classical casino game Blackjack (which consists in adding up numbers without crossing 21), and the darts game 21 (won with 21 points).<\/p>\n\n\n\n 21 is the number of a winning set in table tennis, and the needed points to win in badminton \u2014a very popular sport in England, which is believed to be the origin of Satoshi. It\u2019s also the age of legal adulthood in many countries, including Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But many believe that 21 million bitcoins are just a mathematical coincidence.<\/strong> This way, Satoshi would have selected first the average time to add blocks (10 minutes), the reward paid to miners (from 50 BTC), and the halving amount and frequency (33 every 4 years). Thinking about this, a popular post on Stack Exchange<\/a> explained:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCalculate the number of blocks per 4-year cycle:<\/p> 6 blocks per hour Sum all the block reward sizes: Multiply the two: As we explained previously, the job of the Bitcoin miners (not all the miners, because not all cryptocurrencies work the same way<\/a>) won\u2019t be rewarded as it\u2019s today in 120 years. The block rewards will dry out at some moment, and it\u2019ll probably be a difficult change for the users.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Currently and for a while, the juicy rewards have attracted miners worldwide to put their efforts and money (electricity bills, hardware, cooling systems, informatics knowledge, etc.) into the Bitcoin network. It\u2019s because of them that transactions can be sent and received \u2014verified and added to \u092c\u094d\u0932\u0949\u0915\u091a\u0947\u0928<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Without miners, even if they\u2019re not \u201cmining\u201d anymore, there are no transactions.<\/strong> The fear here is that, without rewards, there won\u2019t be miners (the activity won\u2019t be profitable). Therefore, the Bitcoin network would stop working. But that\u2019s just the worst-case scenario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They won\u2019t have the block rewards anymore, but they\u2019ll still have the transaction fees. Indeed, they already have that too. They earn around $4 million daily from transaction fees only. That\u2019s little compared to the $40 million from block rewards, but it can increase over time if needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Satoshi hinted that in his letter to Mike Hearn:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t anticipate that fees will be needed anytime soon, but if it becomes too burdensome to run a node, it is possible to run a node that only processes transactions that include a transaction fee. The owner of the node would decide the minimum fee they\u2019ll accept. Right now, such a node would get nothing, because nobody includes a fee, but if enough nodes did that, then users would get faster acceptance if they include a fee, or slower if they don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n So, in the future, Bitcoin may get more expensive for users<\/strong>. Although, other theories affirm that sidechains like \u0932\u093e\u0907\u091f\u0928\u093f\u0902\u0917 \u0928\u0947\u091f\u0935\u0930\u094d\u0915<\/a> could be the solution for day-to-day transactions. Meanwhile, only big and important operations would be held and paid directly on the Bitcoin blockchain. In any case, only time (and tech) can tell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u092c\u0940\u091f\u0940\u0938\u0940, \u0908\u091f\u0940\u090f\u091a \u0914\u0930 \u0905\u0928\u094d\u092f \u091f\u094b\u0915\u0928 \u0915\u093e \u0935\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092a\u093e\u0930 \u0915\u0930\u0928\u093e \u091a\u093e\u0939\u0924\u0947 \u0939\u0948\u0902? \u0924\u0941\u092e \u0915\u0930 \u0938\u0915\u0924\u0947 \u0939\u094b<\/em>\u00a0\u0938\u0941\u0930\u0915\u094d\u0937\u093f\u0924 \u0930\u0942\u092a \u0938\u0947\u00a0Alfacash \u092a\u0930<\/a>! \u0914\u0930 \u092f\u0939 \u092e\u0924 \u092d\u0942\u0932\u094b \u0915\u093f \u0939\u092e \u0907\u0938 \u092c\u093e\u0930\u0947 \u092e\u0947\u0902 \u0914\u0930 \u0939\u092e\u093e\u0930\u0947 \u0938\u094b\u0936\u0932 \u092e\u0940\u0921\u093f\u092f\u093e \u092a\u0930 \u092c\u0939\u0941\u0924 \u0938\u0940 \u0905\u0928\u094d\u092f \u091a\u0940\u091c\u094b\u0902 \u0915\u0947 \u092c\u093e\u0930\u0947 \u092e\u0947\u0902 \u092c\u093e\u0924 \u0915\u0930 \u0930\u0939\u0947 \u0939\u0948\u0902\u0964 Only 21 million bitcoins will ever exist, and the mining will stop eventually. Why is that? And what happens next for everyone?<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9860,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[43,152,494,72,98,493],"class_list":{"0":"post-9850","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-analysis","8":"tag-bitcoin","9":"tag-bitcoin-core","10":"tag-halving","11":"tag-mining","12":"tag-satoshi-nakamoto","13":"tag-supply"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/alfacash.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/06-blog.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Isabel P\u00e9rez","author_link":"https:\/\/alfacash.blog\/hi\/author\/isabel\/"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"\u092c\u093f\u091f\u0915\u0949\u0907\u0928-\u0938\u093f\u0915\u094d\u0915\u0947-\u092e\u0941\u091f\u094d\u0920\u0940-\u092c\u091f\u0941\u090f\"](\"https:\/\/alfacash.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/hands-4348717_1280-1024x682.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nWhy 21 million bitcoins and no other number?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Why-21-million-bitcoins\"](\"https:\/\/alfacash.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/question-mark-2492009_1920-1024x512.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nSome theories<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Why-21-million-bitcoins\"](\"https:\/\/alfacash.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/darts-2148653_1920-1024x680.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
* 24 hours per day
* 365 days per year
* 4 years per cycle
= 210,240
~= 210,000<\/p>
50 + 25 + 12.5 + 6.25 + 3.125 + … = 100<\/p>
210,000 * 100 = 21 million.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nWhen Bitcoin mining stops<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\u091a\u0940\u0928-\u0915\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092a\u094d\u091f\u094b\u0915\u094d\u092f\u0942\u0930\u0947\u0902\u0938\u0940-\u092a\u094d\u0930\u0924\u093f\u092c\u0902\u0927-\u0916\u0928\u0928\"](\"https:\/\/alfacash.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bitcoin-3171918_1280-1024x578.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nBetter scenarios<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
<\/em>\u0924\u093e\u0930<\/a>\u00a0*\u00a0\u0907\u0902\u0938\u094d\u091f\u093e\u0917\u094d\u0930\u093e\u092e<\/a>\u00a0*\u00a0\u092f\u0942\u091f\u094d\u092f\u0942\u092c<\/a>\u00a0*\u092b\u0947\u0938\u092c\u0941\u0915<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0*\u00a0\u091f\u094d\u0935\u093f\u091f\u0930<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"