Will we ever run out of Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is the first and the most expensive cryptocurrency in the world. As you might have known, bitcoin emission is limited to 21 million coins available for mining. The limit was set by the developer of the bitcoin system, Satoshi Nakamoto. But what will happen after BTC becomes mined completely? When will it happen? Keep reading the article, if you want to know the answer.
The emission of bitcoin ends when the last coin will be received. Emission is the process when the state introduces to circulation its fiat money or other assets. If we speak about fiat money emission, then it is a function of banking institutions. As you have already known, bitcoin is received with the help of the mining process. Thus, the system operability of bitcoin is provided by the miners. According to CoinMarketCap, 18 615 606 BTC has already been mined by the end of January 2021. As it was mentioned above, the total amount of bitcoin is 21 million. Why is the limit needed? There are several possible variants, but we can define main:
- The bitcoin emission prevents its inflation and devaluation.
- The BTC value should increase due to mining complexity and its falling rates.
Speaking about the future of bitcoin when it will have been mined, we cannot state definitely, we just express our thoughts and hopes about it. So, the halving of the currency in the bitcoin network is happening every 4 years or 210 000 blocks. Also, the trend of Bitcoin leads to the fact that most transactions will be conducted in such units of bitcoin as Satoshi. A satoshi is a unit of the count of bitcoin. It was named after the pseudonym of the creator of Bitcoin: Satoshi Nakamoto. One satoshi is equivalent to 0.00000001 BTC. The BTC is therefore divisible 8 digits after the decimal point, which allows anyone to hold fractions of Bitcoin. This process makes bitcoin affordable for more market participants.
When speaking about competition with banking operations bitcoin cannot compete in terms of speed of transactions, a confirmed bitcoin transaction speed is 20–60 minutes.
As you may know, high transaction speed is needed for global payment. This role will be taken by other technologies as Ripple for instance.
Security and privacy. The development of cryptocurrency will increase its value and lead to the improvement of security systems, storage, and investment, to the development of portable physical media and cloud storage (online banking systems). Probably, it will lead to the progress of secure technologies, as nowadays most of the transactions can be tracked.
However, Bitcoin could not be mined after reaching the 21 million limit. But it will still be possible to exchange, buy, sell and trade with it on the bit4you exchange platform. You can now use bit4you Demo mode to test different trading and investment strategies without risks and fees. Having received $100 000 on virtual funds on your Demo mode, you are able to buy, sell, trade, and exchange bitcoin or any crypto available on the platform in order to find your best strategy and understand the crypto market. According to the forecasts of experts, the digital currency will enter a full-fledged economic turnover as it has rapid growth now. Today, you can use BTC to pay for purchases in an online store, restaurant, or cafe. All these factors have a positive impact on the market value of the coin. Therefore, in the future, the price of the cryptocurrency will be high, so even after the end of the emission, bitcoin will not disappear.
Valentina BEREZA, Team bit4you
