Are you waiting for the next Bitcoin Halving event? Well, you might be sitting around for quite some time.
The Bitcoin Halving will mark the next time the Bitcoin rewards per block reduce, as Bitcoin draws closer to its supply cap of 21 million.
However, there are plenty more crypto events on the horizon. Whether it's the Mt. Gox Bitcoin payout, the Ethereum 2.0 release or Cardano Vasil Hard Fork, there's a lot going on in 2022.
Next Bitcoin Halving Date
The next Bitcoin Halving - known as the 'halvening' - will take place in mid-2024 at block 840,000. Current predictions suggest this will be in May 2024. As of July 2022, this is under 100,000 blocks away.
The 2024 Bitcoin Halving will be the fourth halvening in Bitcoin's history.
The latest Bitcoin Halving occurred on 11 May 2020. It saw the reward fall from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC per block. The first halvening happened in 2012, reducing the reward to 25 BTC from the original reward pricing.
The reward per block will reach 0 after 64 halvings, according to bitcoin's own source code:
if (halvings >= 64)
return 0;
Read More: Free Bitcoin: How To Get Free Bitcoin
What is Bitcoin Halving?
The Bitcoin halving is a regular event in the crypto-calendar where the amount of BTC rewarded per block is halved.
This event re-occurs every time 210,000 blocks are mined. As a block of BTC takes 10 minutes to mine, bitcoin halving happens every 2,100,000 minutes - or 4 years.
The next 'halvening' will see the reward drop to 3.125 BTC per block.
Every bitcoin halving reduces the digital currency's inflation rate. This ensures that, with under 2,000,000 BTC yet to be mined, Bitcoin will not reach its cap until around 2140.
While Satoshi Nakamoto does not mention halving in the bitcoin whitepaper, the event is embedded into bitcoin's code.
Since the last Bitcoin Halving, the cryptocurrency has exploded, reaching new all-time highs and seeing massive crashes, too. What happens next is still unknown, as holders look towards the Crypto Fear and Greed Index as they ponder if crypto will recover.
For more articles like this, take a look at our Planet Crypto page.