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This is correct. But every 4 years, there is a halving. If the price of Bitcoin were to stay the same after each halving, then mining would be half as profitab
by webinvest 5y ago
This is correct. But every 4 years, there is a halving.
If the price of Bitcoin were to stay the same after each halving, then mining would be half as profitable so the amount of energy used by Bitcoin miners would drop by half.
In 2012, the amount of new bitcoins issued every 10 minutes dropped from 50 bitcoins to 25. In 2016, it dropped from 25 to 12.5. In the most recent May 11, 2020 halving, the reward dropped from 12.5 to 6.25 BTC per block.
In the 2024 halving, the reward will drop from 6.25 BTC per block to 3.125 BTC.
An unsolved problem with Bitcoin is that in 15-20 years, Bitcoin may no longer be profitable to mine. People speculate that fees will increase. If people have already invested in solar panels, windmills, hydro electric, volcanic energy and already bought their Bitcoin miners, they might just leave them all on. Even if it only earns them a few dollars a day, the opportunity cost could very well be zero.
- ashtonkem 5y ago> Even if it only earns them a few dollars a day, the opportunity cost could very well be zero. You forgot the opportunity cost of the datacenter itself. It would be much more profitable to turn that into a colo or a VPS host with some new hardware. Regardless, once the bitcoin reward goes low enough Bitcoin will probably become worthless. It's already not usable as a currency, and without the distributed ponzi system ofhanding out blocks to miners, what motive will anyone have to buy it?