Last Bitcoin to Be Minted Around 2140

The Background

What will happen after the last Bitcoin has been minted? Since the emergence of Bitcoin, it was stated that the maximum amount of coins to be minted was as high as 21 million. So, what will happen after that? That’s what many traders, as well as miners, are beginning to wonder. What’s next? Once the supply has reached the maximum level, the miners will not longer receive block rewards, at least not the way they received them so far. Miners will be rewarded with fees from transactions, and this considering that there are no significant changes in the protocol of Bitcoin until then. 

There will only ever exist 21 billion coins of Bitcoin. When the last Bitcoin has been mined, which is predicted to happen sometime around 2140, there won’t be anymore Bitcoins entering the circulation. The principle that the blockchain of Bitcoin was created around is that of a controlled supply. It means that there’s already a fixed amount of new coins being issued each year until the grand total of 21 million coins has been reached. Once this happens, the network, in general, will keep operating the same way, except the significant change for miners.

The Miner’s Reward

Every ten minutes or so, the miners who work with Bitcoin discover a block. They solve the puzzle of cryptography that enables the miner to attach a new block to the blockchain. Every block is formed by a bunch of records of transactions waiting in the pool of memory of Bitcoin. They get chosen often because of the size of the fee they can bring to miners. Every time a miner discovers a block, they receive an established amount of Bitcoin for their contribution. That is known as the “block reward.” 

First, the reward was 50 Bitcoins, but every time 210,000 new blocks are discovered, the reward gets cut by half. That happens more or less in a time frame of four years. The reward has already been cut a few times, first to 25 BTC, then 12.5 BTC to currently be at 6.25 BTC. The last cut happened in May 2020, and the next one is expected to occur in 2024. 

So What Happens After the Last Bitcoin?

After the last Bitcoins have been issued, miners will be able to keep participating in the process of discovering blocks. The main difference is that the reward will not be the same, but there will still be a reward for them. The miners will receive a fee spent on the transactions in every new block. They currently make as little as 6.5% of revenue out of those fees, but by 2140, it should go up to 100%.

Will this disincentivize people from mining? Only time will tell. For now, miners are taking advantage of the situation while they still can do it. Until the day that the last Bitcoin gets minted, something is for sure we still have a long way to go, and many things can change. Nothing is set in stone, especially when it comes to technology development. But bottom line, it seems more and more real that crypto has come to stay with us.

The Capital Market Revolution, Decentralized Finance

With smart contracts and blockchain involved, decentralized finance has become an excellent alternative to the most common financial services. They have proved they are great at updating, improving, and globalizing finance. 

Until recently, we’ve been living in a centralized world because institutions are in charge of the access to capital markets and the issuance of currency. For example, to access the traditional capital markets, one must go through a financial institution authorized to do so, like a bank. That same institution will be the one centralizing all the information and will have the power of the clients’ assets.

The entity through which we have accessed the capital market is also registered in a centralized registry that allows it to access it. In other words, the entire financial system in this process is centralized. Even when we purchase on any platform to buy and sell goods or articles, the information is centralized. The same happens every time we make a payment through any application or means of payment. In the traditional capital market, the entire financial system is centralized. All the information, payments, purchases, sales of goods or articles, are centralized in records of the control agencies. 

Available Alternatives

They are nothing more than financial systems without the need for intermediaries. Decentralized finance is an excellent alternative to traditional financial services supported by smart contracts. That came with the intention of updating, improving, and globalizing classic financial services. 

DeFi is a set of rules and protocols that, thanks to blockchain technology, decentralize the financial system as we knew it before. In this case, the information flows without needing an institution to give its approval. The users themselves are the ones who safeguard their assets.

Final Thoughts

It is no longer necessary to make payments through banks or companies that provide payment services. It is also not necessary to lend money or invest through entities that centralize these activities. DeFi technology is here to stay, creating greater freedom for users to use and safeguard their money. In addition, thanks to the different investment platforms, people can access this type of service more efficiently and in just one click.

Blockchain Technology Helps Businesses Grow

Blockchain technology has become one of the most used technologies today since it became famous for making bitcoin possible. But, besides bitcoin, it can be helpful for any company. Such is the case of websites for sports betting and, in general, all kinds of websites. When talking about betting, it allows payments in crypto. That enables a system of trust for the user to feel comfortable using the websites. Also, it provides security and total anonymity for the users.

Besides this sector, the truth is that the Internet is being revolutionized by blockchain technology. That can yield a lot of benefits for all kinds of companies. If you have a business and you wish to implement blockchain to be one of its engines, here are some advantages to consider.

More Secure Financial Transactions 

The main advantages of blockchain technology are safety, trustworthiness, and irreversibility since it enables the transactions from user to user. The goal is eliminate the need for intermediaries to facilitate financial relationships that are reliable and permit to decrease costs.

Data Can’t Be Faked With Blockchain Technology

Among these significant advantages that blockchain can bring to your business is that, when financial transaction data has been uploaded, it will be impossible to falsify and, in turn, cannot be erased.

No Loss Of Information

Thanks to the blockchain technology, the information or the service will not be lost and will continue functioning in case the Network falls.

Cost Saving

For your business, implementing blockchain technology will cost less. This is because it is a cost-effective technology. That is possible by eliminating intermediaries as it offers the possibility of streamlining communications and processes.

Speed

Another advantage is that it doesn’t have a central authority or intermediaries, as mentioned before. It makes all the information always within reach to all Internet participants at the moment. What this causes is that the process of transmitting data becomes more straightforward. It yields data to be sent at a higher speed and also managed faster. 

Recently, blockchain technology has been a significant technological disruption for all types of sectors. Above all, thanks to the evolution of software and devices, it is possible to link transactions through a global distribution system.

Of course, there are still some challenges regarding security, legality, adaptability, privacy management, and intellectual property. But companies will be preparing to fight against these challenges and make blockchain the technology of the future.