What is Halving Cycle?
The halving cycle refers to the period between Bitcoin block-subsidy halvings — roughly every 210,000 blocks, or about four years. Each halving cuts new issuance in half and has historically preceded major market cycles, though future behaviour is not guaranteed.
Why Halving Cycle matters
Understanding Halving Cycle 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
- Halving — The scheduled 50% cut in Bitcoin's block subsidy.
- Block Reward — New coins paid to the miner of a block.
- Bitcoin — The first decentralised digital currency, launched in 2009.
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.