BitcoinEducation
Why the Bitcoin Halving Historically Increases Price
The bitcoin halving, which occurs every four years, is encoded into Bitcoin itself. Its purpose is to cut in half the amount of Bitcoin that is rewarded for every block that is mined, meaning you must double the processing power every four years to mine the same amount of Bitcoin. (A block reward refers to the number of bitcoins you get if you successfully mine a block of the currency. Investopedia 2023)
This means that it becomes twice as hard for bitcoin miners to mine the same amount of bitcoin they were mining four years earlier with the same hardware. This creates what is known as a drop in supply or supply shock, where market demand either stays the same or increases, and the price of bitcoin must increase to meet the demand.
If the demand stays the same or increases, the price still has to increase because the supply of bitcoin being mined daily is half what it was in the previous four years. There are fewer coins to buy, so the market must compete by paying higher prices. Because this event is exponential, eventually hardware will not be able to keep up with the halving if miners want to be profitable.
This may seem like an oversimplification of the most basic economic principles. However, that is what is fundamentally encoded into bitcoin, which guarantees an increase in price by cutting supply every four years (guaranteed only if demand stays the same or increases). That is why bitcoin halving is referred to as a market-moving event, because not only historically has it proven to increase prices and cut supply, but fundamentally it has too.
Now let’s look at a real-life example for comparison. Gold does have real-world use in technology and jewelry. However, its main value and use are as a store of value. Most gold is bought and accumulated because it will retain its value, which is the same use case as bitcoin. What do you think would happen if the entire gold production market was slashed in half overnight and this process was repeated every four years? The price of gold would increase exponentially as the finite resource becomes more and more scarce because it is harder to mine. Now apply the same logic to bitcoin, and hopefully you will begin to see the picture.
The next bitcoin has just under 60 days coming up in mid-April 2024, so mark your calendars.
This means that it becomes twice as hard for bitcoin miners to mine the same amount of bitcoin they were mining four years earlier with the same hardware. This creates what is known as a drop in supply or supply shock, where market demand either stays the same or increases, and the price of bitcoin must increase to meet the demand.
If the demand stays the same or increases, the price still has to increase because the supply of bitcoin being mined daily is half what it was in the previous four years. There are fewer coins to buy, so the market must compete by paying higher prices. Because this event is exponential, eventually hardware will not be able to keep up with the halving if miners want to be profitable.
This may seem like an oversimplification of the most basic economic principles. However, that is what is fundamentally encoded into bitcoin, which guarantees an increase in price by cutting supply every four years (guaranteed only if demand stays the same or increases). That is why bitcoin halving is referred to as a market-moving event, because not only historically has it proven to increase prices and cut supply, but fundamentally it has too.
Now let’s look at a real-life example for comparison. Gold does have real-world use in technology and jewelry. However, its main value and use are as a store of value. Most gold is bought and accumulated because it will retain its value, which is the same use case as bitcoin. What do you think would happen if the entire gold production market was slashed in half overnight and this process was repeated every four years? The price of gold would increase exponentially as the finite resource becomes more and more scarce because it is harder to mine. Now apply the same logic to bitcoin, and hopefully you will begin to see the picture.
The next bitcoin has just under 60 days coming up in mid-April 2024, so mark your calendars.
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