First, 50.<\/p>\n

Then, 25.<\/p>\n

Eventually, 12.5.<\/p>\n

After that, 6.25.<\/p>\n

And now, 3.125.<\/p>\n

Four halvings later, we enter the fifth of 33 epochs of Bitcoin. The first 32 epochs, in Bitcoin-terms, last 210,000 blocks, with the 33rd lasting until the heat death of the universe. <\/p>\n

At 10 minutes per block, on average, that means just about every four years, Bitcoin cuts its supply issuance in half. The specific numerical finite-ness that comes downstream of this mechanism \u2013\u2013 that defines bitcoin\u2019s scarcity in a nearly infinite universe \u2013\u2013 is ultimately irrelevant. Satoshi could have started at a 100 bitcoin block reward and we would have arrived at just about the same place today. But there are some statistical conveniences of starting at 50, such as that 50% of all bitcoin to ever be issued are during the first epoch. And thus, 25% of all bitcoin to ever be issued were issued in the second, and so on, and so forth. <\/p>\n

Speaking of fourth, the fourth epoch terminates in the fourth month of 2024 at the completion of the fourth halving at block 840,000. A lot happened the fourth time around: El Salvador making bitcoin legal tender, Wall Street\u2019s ETF play, the Taproot-enabling softfork, and even Ordinals. <\/p>\n

Every new halving brings up the legitimacy of cycle theory, of whether or not supply issuance can be \u201cpriced in\u201d. <\/p>\n

Each halving is a time of self-reflection for bitcoiners and the culture they curate. Not only is Bitcoin arguably no longer a counter-culture with nation-state and Wall-street adoption (co-option?), but it is no longer a mono-culture. While many things were born during this epoch, it is perhaps the death of the homogenous bitcoiner that is the most apparent. <\/p>\n

Bitcoin is for anyone; Salvadorans, Larry Fink, Bored Apes, and ESG\u2019ers. <\/p>\n

Welcome to the Fifth Epoch. <\/p>\n

The Editors<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First, 50. Then, 25. Eventually, 12.5. After that, 6.25. And now, 3.125. Four halvings later, we enter the fifth of 33 epochs of Bitcoin. The first 32 epochs, in Bitcoin-terms, last 210,000 blocks, with the 33rd lasting until the heat death of the universe. At 10 minutes per block, on average, that means just about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crypto-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24604\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}