5 ms·

FWIW, love or hate Bitcoin, the 4th Bitcoin halving is happening in 9 blocks as I type this, give our take 90 mins, probably a bit less.

m3kw9 2y ago
Is being used as pump fuel
pinkmuffinere 2y ago
How is this relevant?
- TacticalCoder 2y ago
  I think it's no coincidence that Kraken (a very old cryptocurrencies exchange) is publishing a post on its blog about Bitcoin the very day a Bitcoin halving is happening... Thought it was worth mentioning.
- npoc 2y ago
  The issuance, which is the main source of bitcoin for sale on the market (from the miners) is halving. value = demand/supply. It takes a few months for the supply reduction to filter through to the market, but then things get wild. Any other physical commodity such as gold for example, will naturally see a supply increase as the value increases (retired miners dusting off their picks to profit on the high prices) but bitcoin's issuance is hard fixed. No amount of effort will produce more bitcoin than 3.125 every 10 minutes. Mankind has never seen anything like this before.
gowld 2y ago
6 blocks ~60 minutes left. https://www.nicehash.com/countdown/btc-halving-2024-05-10-12-00 https://www.nicehash.com/countdown/btc-halving-2024-05-10-12... What happens to existing hardware at that point? Resold for video games? Sold to people who have cheaper electricity?
- TacticalCoder 2y ago
  > What happens to existing hardware at that point? Resold for video games? Sold to people who have cheaper electricity? I think some is sold to people who have cheaper electricity. Some miners shall probably also mine at a loss for a while, sitting on reserves, while smaller ones dies. Cannot resell for video games: Bitcoin is mined using dedicated ASICs since many years. And Ethereum, the second biggest after Bitcoin, is now mined using proof-of-stake (so neither GPUs nor ASICs involved). But in a few halvings (every four years, so in a "few halvings" I won't be here anymore) I don't understand how it'd work out: too little BTCs rewarded per block and I don't see tx fees paying the miners.
  - phire 2y ago
    > I don't understand how it'd work out: too little BTCs rewarded per block The math only works out if value of bitcoin continues to increase in value, at least a constant 25% annual return, year after year (on top of inflation). If the price of bitcoin ever stabilises (or worse, drops) over the long term, then the security of bitcoin will go down, until eventually it becomes viable for someone to launch a 51% attack.
    - tromp 2y ago
      Instead the security will rely on maintaining a large backlog of high fee paying transactions.
    - greyface- 2y ago
      100% return over 4 years refigured as constant annual return is 19%, not 25%, due to compounding.
    - woleium 2y ago
      difficulty also updates every couple of weeks. less folk mining means less energy per coin mined
      - phire 2y ago

m3kw9 2y ago

Is being used as pump fuel

pinkmuffinere 2y ago

How is this relevant?

TacticalCoder 2y ago
I think it's no coincidence that Kraken (a very old cryptocurrencies exchange) is publishing a post on its blog about Bitcoin the very day a Bitcoin halving is happening... Thought it was worth mentioning.
npoc 2y ago
The issuance, which is the main source of bitcoin for sale on the market (from the miners) is halving. value = demand/supply. It takes a few months for the supply reduction to filter through to the market, but then things get wild. Any other physical commodity such as gold for example, will naturally see a supply increase as the value increases (retired miners dusting off their picks to profit on the high prices) but bitcoin's issuance is hard fixed. No amount of effort will produce more bitcoin than 3.125 every 10 minutes. Mankind has never seen anything like this before.

gowld 2y ago

6 blocks ~60 minutes left. https://www.nicehash.com/countdown/btc-halving-2024-05-10-12-00 https://www.nicehash.com/countdown/btc-halving-2024-05-10-12... What happens to existing hardware at that point? Resold for video games? Sold to people who have cheaper electricity?

TacticalCoder 2y ago
> What happens to existing hardware at that point? Resold for video games? Sold to people who have cheaper electricity? I think some is sold to people who have cheaper electricity. Some miners shall probably also mine at a loss for a while, sitting on reserves, while smaller ones dies. Cannot resell for video games: Bitcoin is mined using dedicated ASICs since many years. And Ethereum, the second biggest after Bitcoin, is now mined using proof-of-stake (so neither GPUs nor ASICs involved). But in a few halvings (every four years, so in a "few halvings" I won't be here anymore) I don't understand how it'd work out: too little BTCs rewarded per block and I don't see tx fees paying the miners.
- phire 2y ago
  > I don't understand how it'd work out: too little BTCs rewarded per block The math only works out if value of bitcoin continues to increase in value, at least a constant 25% annual return, year after year (on top of inflation). If the price of bitcoin ever stabilises (or worse, drops) over the long term, then the security of bitcoin will go down, until eventually it becomes viable for someone to launch a 51% attack.
  - tromp 2y ago
    Instead the security will rely on maintaining a large backlog of high fee paying transactions.
  - greyface- 2y ago
    100% return over 4 years refigured as constant annual return is 19%, not 25%, due to compounding.
  - woleium 2y ago
    difficulty also updates every couple of weeks. less folk mining means less energy per coin mined
    - phire 2y ago