"Mined" already 90% of the total emission of bitcoin

The first cryptocurrency, the network of which began to worka little over 10 years ago, this year has reached not only a unique price maximum. On December 13, 2021, at block # 714000, miners announced that there were only 2.1 million BTC left to “mine”, which means that 90% of Satoshi Nakamoto's limited Bitcoin emission of 21 million coins has already been mined.

It took 18.9 million bitcoins to mineless than 12 years, however, with each mined block from the bitcoin network, the complexity of "calculating" the next block, for which miners are rewarded in bitcoins, increases, and the remaining 10% will require about 120 years of miners' work. The last bitcoin will only be mined in 2140.

Strictly speaking, 90% of bitcoins were mined on# 714032 block, which is explained by the fact that the very first miners simply did not claim rewards. The mining of the first bitcoins was available on antediluvian, simplest computer equipment, and the low price of bitcoin led to the fact that the first miners treated cryptocurrency without due respect.

As a result, according to analystsChainalysis, up to 3.79 million bitcoins have been lost forever. Another 1 million bitcoins are stored in addresses associated with the mysterious Satoshi himself. Thus, almost 4.8 million of the mined 18.9 million bitcoins, although they exist, do not take part in the turnover.

Source: businessinsider