NEW YORK (AP) — Sometime in the next few days or even hours, the “miners” who chisel bitcoins out of complex mathematics are going to take a 50% pay cut — effectively slicing new production of the world’s largest cryptocurrency in half.
That could have a lot of implications, from the price of the asset to the bitcoin miners themselves. And, as with everything in the volatile cryptoverse, the future is hard to predict.
Here’s what you need to know.
Bitcoin “halving,” a preprogrammed event that occurs roughly every four years, impacts the production of bitcoin. Miners use farms of noisy, specialized computers to solve convoluted math puzzles; and when they complete one, they get a fixed number of bitcoins as a reward.
Halving does exactly what it sounds like — it cuts that fixed income in half. And when the mining reward falls, so does the number of new bitcoins entering the market. That means the supply of coins available to satisfy demand grows more slowly.
Biden says Brown v. Board of Education ruling was about more than education
Haiti health system nears collapse as medicine dwindles, gangs attack hospitals and ports stay shut
DR MAX PEMBERTON: I've seen the real impact infidelity has on children, and it breaks my heart
Haiti health system nears collapse as medicine dwindles, gangs attack hospitals and ports stay shut
Russian theater director and playwright go on trial over a play authorities say justifies terrorism
Rays place struggling closer Pete Fairbanks on injured list with nerve
Lady Amelia Windsor wows in lace slip dress as she attends Earth Day dinner in London
19th Western Pacific Naval Symposium set to take place in E China
Ben Whishaw lights up the Croisette as he joins his co
Fish farm develops into tourist hotspot in exploration of modern aquaculture