✂️ The Halving & 21 Million

The reward keeps getting cut in half

The block reward isn’t fixed forever. Every 210,000 blocks — roughly every four years — it halves.

It began at 50 bitcoin per block, then dropped to 25, then 12.5, then 6.25… and it keeps shrinking toward zero. This scheduled event is called "the halving."

That’s where 21 million comes from

Add up every reward from an ever-halving series and the grand total can never exceed 21,000,000 bitcoin. The cap isn’t a slogan — it’s just the math of halving, again and again.

And because the schedule is fixed and public, anyone can predict the exact supply decades into the future. No surprises, no committee, no printing.

Quick check: What happens at each "halving"?

1. The price is guaranteed to double
2. The amount of new bitcoin created per block is cut in half ✓
3. Half of all bitcoin is deleted

The *issuance* halves — the flow of new coins slows. It’s the opposite of a money printer: the taps tighten on a fixed schedule.

Quick check: Why can Bitcoin’s future supply be predicted so precisely?

1. A foundation announces it each year
2. Issuance follows a fixed, public schedule (halving every 210k blocks) capped at 21M ✓
3. It can’t be predicted

This is the superpower fiat lacks: a money whose supply is transparent and unchangeable. You’re seeing *why* "21 million" is trustworthy, not just told to believe it.