When is the Bitcoin Halving 2020?
Bitcoin Halving Series — Part I
By James Bennett, CEO of ByteTree
One of the most highly anticipated events in Bitcoin’s recent history is the Bitcoin Halving 2020. At the current rate that bitcoin is being mined, the bitcoin halving 2020 is scheduled for Monday 11th May, at 14:14 GMT.
In this article, we will give a brief summary of what the bitcoin halving is, before looking at how different scenarios could affect the date of the bitcoin halving 2020.
New bitcoins can only be created when new blocks are mined. New bitcoins are issued by the network as a reward for the work that miners put in to approving transactions. The number of bitcoin that miners are rewarded is called the block reward or “generation”. You can track the amount of coins generated in each block on the ByteTree Terminal.
What does the halving mean?
Halving means that the number of bitcoins rewarded to miners is cut in half. At present time, miners are rewarded 12.5 BTC ($112,500) for each successful block. After the halving, the miner will receive 6.25 BTC ($56,250) per block. The halving process happens every four years until all of the bitcoins have been rewarded. This means the supply of new bitcoins increases at a diminishing rate until a total of 21 million have been rewarded. The final reward of 0.098 BTC ($879 in today’s prices) is scheduled to be mined in 2140. There have been two halvings before in bitcoin’s short history, which can be seen in the table below.
When is the bitcoin halving 2020
The time and date of halvings can be estimated based on the rate that miners are being rewarded new coins but recall that this rate can change depending on how hard they are working. Put another way, the halving occurs every 210,000 blocks and the rate of work defines how quickly or slowly that miners can get through those 210,000 blocks. In order to provide a more accurate estimate for when is the bitcoin halving 2020, we have projected forward using a monthly and quarterly moving average of block time production, in addition to the target block time of 10 minutes per block.
As can be seen in the chart above, the 5Wk moving average of block times is close to the target of 10 minutes per block, with both forecasting the 2020 halving to occur on 10th May. The 12 Wks moving average block times are lower however, and suggest that the halving will occur on the 14th May, over 4 days later.
Summary
The answer to when is the bitcoin halving 2020 ultimately depends on the Hashrate allocated to the network by miners in the coming weeks. It is safe to say that the halving will occur in May, some time between the 8th May and the 16th May, but the exact time and date will change with each new block produced. The best way to keep track of the 2020 bitcoin halving is to track it live on the homepage of the ByteTree terminal.
This article has been cross-posted from the ByteTree blog, originally published on 8th March 2020.
