What is Halving?
Approximately every four years (every 210,000 blocks), Bitcoin's block subsidy is cut in half. This enforces a hard cap of 21 million BTC and produces a predictable, decreasing issuance schedule.
Why Halving matters
Understanding Halving is part of building a solid mental model of how Bitcoin, blockchain and Web3 systems actually work. Concepts in the Bitcoin category sit at the foundation of the broader stack — get them right and the rest is far easier.
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Related terms
- Block Reward — New coins paid to the miner of a block.
- Bitcoin — The first decentralised digital currency, launched in 2009.
- Halving Cycle — Bitcoin's roughly four-year monetary cycle.
More bitcoin terms
- Address (Bitcoin / Crypto Address) — A public destination for receiving cryptocurrency.
- Block Header — The metadata at the top of each block.
- Difficulty — A parameter that controls how hard it is to mine a block.
- Double Spend — Attempting to spend the same coin twice.
- Hash Rate — The total computational power securing the network.
- Mining — Producing new blocks by performing Proof of Work.
- Nakamoto Consensus — Bitcoin's consensus rule: follow the chain with the most work.
- Nonce — The number miners change while searching for a valid hash.
Keep exploring
Continue with the full blockchain glossary — 136 terms in total — or read the developer blog and FAQ for deeper context.