Blockmemento

Block 840,000 · 20 April 2024

The fourth halving

The fourth halving came with block 840,000, mined in the first minutes of 20 April 2024. From that block on, the reward for a new block fell from 6.25 to 3.125 bitcoins, as the schedule of 2009 required; more than 93 % of all the bitcoins that will ever exist had already been created.

The block is remembered for something else as well. Its fees came to more than 37 bitcoins, twelve times the new reward. Many wanted a transaction in that very block: it opened a new era of the reward, and a new protocol for creating tokens on Bitcoin, Runes, went live with it. Space in the block was bid up accordingly.

The pool that found it, ViaBTC, left its name in the coinbase of the block, where the poster prints it. For the security of the chain the episode was a hopeful one: as rewards keep shrinking, fees paid by users are meant to take their place, and for one block they did, many times over.

The next halving is due at block 1,050,000, around 2028.

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