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.
Taylor Swift 'calls out Kadarius Toney' on The Tortured Poets Department song about Travis Kelce
China to Pilot National Cultural Heritage
Across China: Transforming Hollow Village into Thriving Tourist Destination
China Steps up Efforts to Boost Employment
NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week
China to Provide Trainee Jobs for College Graduates, Young People
Policy Seeks to Improve Students' Science Literacy
Seeing Anxiety Philosophically
Atlanta or Afghanistan? Wild shootout breaks out at gas station with one gunman wielding an AK
China Sees Improved Ecological Vegetation Quality in 2022
Arizona State hit with NCAA sanctions for improper football recruiting visits during pandemic
Feature: Young Chinese Street Dancers Pursuing Olympic, Asiad Dream