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Bitcoin block reward is halving in less than 2 hours

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Re: Bitcoin block reward is halving in less than 2 hours

#2
The site says that 75% of all bitcoins have already been mined. I understand that it will become more and more difficult ensuring that the amount of money will continue to increase. However, I remember that I once read that bitcoins can only be split into so many "pieces" which wouldn't be enough to provide a sufficient amount of money for the economy to function. Does anyone know more?

Edit: found the answer: The protocol allows to create new, smaller units. http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/122/will-we-ever-...

Re: Bitcoin block reward is halving in less than 2 hours

#3

The site says that 75% of all bitcoins have already been mined. I understand that it will become more and more difficult ensuring that the amount of money will continue to increase. However, I remember that I once read that bitcoins can only be split into so many "pieces" which wouldn't be enough to provide a sufficient amount of money for the economy to function. Does anyone know more? Edit: found the answer: The pr…

Each bitcoin can be theoretically split into 100 million Satoshis (the bitcoin equivalent of a penny I guess). The maximum number of bitcoin that can exist given the current system 21 million. Those multiplied together seem to me sufficient for any economy (about 12x the total amount of US currency in circulation if you count a satoshi as a penny), but someone who knows more about economics would have to chime in for sure

Re: Bitcoin block reward is halving in less than 2 hours

#4

The site says that 75% of all bitcoins have already been mined. I understand that it will become more and more difficult ensuring that the amount of money will continue to increase. However, I remember that I once read that bitcoins can only be split into so many "pieces" which wouldn't be enough to provide a sufficient amount of money for the economy to function. Does anyone know more? Edit: found the answer: The pr…

The smallest transmissible unit of Bitcoin is the "satoshi", which is one hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin.

However, if the value of one satoshi ever grew large enough that people wanted to subdivide it, it'd be possible to migrate to a smaller division by consensus, by adding support in miners and clients, advertising that support without using it, and migrating when enough of those advertised the support.

Re: Bitcoin block reward is halving in less than 2 hours

#5

The site says that 75% of all bitcoins have already been mined. I understand that it will become more and more difficult ensuring that the amount of money will continue to increase. However, I remember that I once read that bitcoins can only be split into so many "pieces" which wouldn't be enough to provide a sufficient amount of money for the economy to function. Does anyone know more? Edit: found the answer: The pr…

A single bitcoin can be split infinitely -- it's just a matter of adjusting the number of decimal points. Currently, a satoshi amounts to a millionth of a Bitcoin. If a Satoshi becomes more valuable, there may be more decimal points added.

Re: Bitcoin block reward is halving in less than 2 hours

#6

The site says that 75% of all bitcoins have already been mined. I understand that it will become more and more difficult ensuring that the amount of money will continue to increase. However, I remember that I once read that bitcoins can only be split into so many "pieces" which wouldn't be enough to provide a sufficient amount of money for the economy to function. Does anyone know more? Edit: found the answer: The pr…

There are some good comments in that stack exchange question. They divide the units by people and get 300000 satoshis/person. I was going to mention though in order for those small units to be useable the currency would have to be very valuable. Right now the trading fees are somewhere in the order of 0.0001-0.00001 so if you have any less than that you cant be sure that you will be able to transfer them.

Re: Bitcoin block reward is halving in less than 2 hours

#8
post #5

The site says that 75% of all bitcoins have already been mined. I understand that it will become more and more difficult ensuring that the amount of money will continue to increase. However, I remember that I once read that bitcoins can only be split into so many "pieces" which wouldn't be enough to provide a sufficient amount of money for the economy to function. Does anyone know more? Edit: found the answer: The pr…

A single bitcoin can be split infinitely -- it's just a matter of adjusting the number of decimal points. Currently, a satoshi amounts to a millionth of a Bitcoin. If a Satoshi becomes more valuable, there may be more decimal points added.

Is this statement correct? What's the point of a limited number of coins, if they can be split infinitely? That's no different than the government printing money.

Re: Bitcoin block reward is halving in less than 2 hours

#9
post #8
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A single bitcoin can be split infinitely -- it's just a matter of adjusting the number of decimal points. Currently, a satoshi amounts to a millionth of a Bitcoin. If a Satoshi becomes more valuable, there may be more decimal points added.

Is this statement correct? What's the point of a limited number of coins, if they can be split infinitely? That's no different than the government printing money.

Is that so? It sound more analogous to adding a 1/2th penny

Re: Bitcoin block reward is halving in less than 2 hours

#10
post #9
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this statement correct? What's the point of a limited number of coins, if they can be split infinitely? That's no different than the government printing money.

Is that so? It sound more analogous to adding a 1/2th penny

By a similar argument, the world's supply of gold is almost infinitely subdivideable, but still finite.
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