The Bitcoin halving is drawing ever closer, and the community is getting excited. This is only the second time the Bitcoin block reward will be cut in half, and it is a significant milestone for this cryptocurrency. But it looks like there will be one more mining difficulty adjustment before the halving, which may throw off all countdown timers.
The Halvening Is Coming
As the Bitcoin halving comes closer, the primary question on everybody’s mind is where the Bitcoin price will end up at. Albeit there will be fewer coins generated every day, there is no guarantee for any significant price movement. Slower inflation is a good thing, though, as the last few million BTC will be mined between now and [roughly] 2140.
The existing supply of Bitcoin will not go away by any means, but liquidity across the exchanges may be impacted. With a limited number of coins in circulation, there could – theoretically – be less significant trading orders. The so-called “wealthy elite” of Bitcoiners will still trade their supply whenever there is profit to be taken, though. In fact, it may be possible we will not see any significant changes in this department.
Bitcoin miners, on the other hand, will have some tough questions to ponder. Depending on the Bitcoin price after the halving, their operation may become less profitable, or even unsustainable. Bigger mining pools and farms in areas with cheap electricity will not feel much of an impact from this scenario either.
Speaking of the Bitcoin mining process, it appears there will be one more difficulty adjustment right before the halving. In most cases, the difficulty will go up if there is more hardware mining on the network during the past 2160 blocks. Depending on how significant this change will be, the countdown timers for the Bitcoin halving may be off by a few minutes or several hours.
In the end, there are still a lot of questions surrounding the Bitcoin halving that need to be answered. Big things may happen, or no change may take place at all. Right now, it is anybody’s guess as to what will happen. More importantly, the exact time when this change will happen remains somewhat unknown as well.
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