Bitcoin (BTC) has already processed its 700,000th block. More precisely, bitcoin miners added the 700,000th transaction block to the bitcoin blockchain yesterday. Bitcoin developer Pieter Wuille made us aware of this yesterday:
Mining is the process by which the bitcoin network puts new BTC into circulation. It is also the process of verifying transactions by recording them on the blockchain, the underlying technology of the network and a kind of public ledger. The entire bitcoin blockchain is now 431.1 GB in size.
It was almost 2 years ago, on October 18, 2019, that the 600,000th block was verified on the network. Back then, the price of bitcoin was still around $8,000. The 500,000th block was added on December 18, 2017. The price then reached its old all time high (ATH) of $19,665. the 100,000ste block was added on December 29, 2010. Back then, a BTC cost only half a cent. Today, the price of a bitcoin is around $46,000.
Bitcoin has now mined almost 90% of all bitcoin ever, namely about 18.8 million of the 21 million in total. However, it will take some time before the other 2.2 million are mined, it is estimated that this will not be until the year 2140.
The reason why this process is slowing down is due to the so-called halving. Every 210,000 blocks, or approximately every 4 years, the reward miners receive is halved. That happened in May 2020, on block 630,000, when the reward dropped from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC. The next halving will be on block 840,000 and then the reward will halve to 3,125 BTC. This is expected to take place at the end of March 2024. This is seen as a very bullish development for the bitcoin price because the available supply quickly expires.