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.
Jeezy BACKTRACKS on request for full custody of daughter Monaco, two, amid Jeannie Mai divorce
Media Minister had 'more than enough time' to find solutions
Changes to flu vaccine eligibility missed opportunity to improve health equity
Beijing Half Marathon champion has medal taken away after other runners slowed down to let him win
Teenagers named as victims of Nelson off
DOC job cuts plan: Tourism, backcountry huts, flora and fauna at risk, groups say
Food price hikes stall, thanks to lowered cost of fruit and veges
Europe discards Arsenal and Liverpool shift focus to EPL title race
China's real estate giant Evergrande files for bankruptcy
A man gets 19 years for a downtown St. Louis crash that cost a teen volleyball player her legs
Watch live: Millions across North America await total solar eclipse