On May 5, 2022, at block height 735,000, the bitcoin mining pool Poolin mined the 105,000th block reward since the last halving. The mined block also represents the halfway point to the next halving that is estimated to take place on or around April 27, 2024. Block 735,000 follows the network issuing over 19 million bitcoin and the hashrate reaching an all-time high three days ago on May 2.
Block 735,000: Halfway to next halving
The Bitcoin network is approaching the next halving which is expected to occur on or around April 27, 2024, which is 723 days from now. At a block height of 735,000, the 105,000th block has been mined and there are now 105,000 left until the next halving. At the time of writing, data shows there are 104,928 block grant awards left to tap.
Presently, bitcoin miners get 6.25 BTC for a block reward and the fees associated with the confirmed transactions. Poolin earned the 6.25 BTC and 0.16215354 BTC worth of network fees associated with the block reward’s 1,487 transactions. The halfway point to the halving follows Bitcoin’s hashrate all-time high (ATH) recorded on May 2, 2022, at block height 734,577.
On that day, BTC’s hashrate reached an ATH of 275.01 exahash per second (EH/s). As of this writing, there are 767 blocks left in the network until the next difficulty retargeting which is expected to take place on or around May 10, 2022. A difficulty increase of approximately 5.29% is estimated to occur after the last difficulty change of about 5.56%. .
When the next halving occurs, bitcoin miners will see their revenues shaved in half as the block subsidy reward will change from the current 6.25 BTC reward to 3.125 BTC. The current Bitcoin network issuance has an inflation rate of around 1.74% per annum. So far, throughout Bitcoin’s entire lifetime, only three halvings have occurred.
The next Bitcoin Halving will take place at a block height of 840,000 in 2024
The first Bitcoin block reward halving took place on November 28, 2012, at a block height of 210,000. The second halving took place on July 9, 2016, at a block height of 420,000, and the third halving took place on May 11, 2020, at a block height of 630,000. The next halving scheduled to take place on or around April 27, 2024 will take place at a block height of 840,000.
The U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks worldwide like to target a 2% inflation rate per annum, but that has changed a great deal since the Covid-19 pandemic and the monetary supply expansions that took place globally. Bitcoin’s current inflation rate of 1.74% per annum is much better than the central bank’s long lost target rate.
When the next halving takes place in 105,000 blocks, Bitcoin’s inflation rate will be estimated at 1.1% per year. Because Bitcoin has a predictable monetary supply, we can also estimate that by the time the 2028 block subsidy halves, Bitcoin’s inflation rate will be estimated at 0.5% per year.
