The Ceylon Times: Bitcoin

What is the BITCOIN ?

Bitcoin is a world’s first cryptocurrency, a form of electronic cash. It is a decentralized digital currency without a central bank or single administrator that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries.

Transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain. Bitcoin was invented by an unknown person or group of people using the name Satoshi Nakamoto and was released as open-source software in 2009. Bitcoins are created as a reward for a process known as mining. They can be exchanged for other currencies, products, and services. Research produced by University of Cambridge estimates that in 2017, there were 2.9 to 5.8 million unique users using a cryptocurrency wallet, most of them using bitcoin.

Bitcoins are divisible into smaller units known as satoshis - each satoshi is worth 0.00000001 bitcoin.

Symbol: ₿
Ledger start: 3 January 2009
Supply limit: ₿ 21,000,000
Circulating supply: ₿ 18,062,163 (as of 22 November 2019)
Founder: Satoshi Nakamoto

How Many Bitcoins Are Mined Everyday?

144 blocks per day are mined on average, and there are 12.5 bitcoins per block. 144 x 12.5 is 1,800, so that's the average amount of new bitcoins mined per day.

Because many miners are adding new hash power, over the last few years blocks have often been found at 9.5 minute intervals rather than 10. This creates new bitcoins faster, so on most days there are actually more than 1,800 new bitcoins created.

Total Number of Bitcoins

The maximum and total amount of bitcoins that can ever exist is 21 million.

How Many Bitcoins Does Satoshi Have?

Some estimate Satoshi has around 900,000 bitcoins (BTC). This number is heavily debated, though, as some claim he has around 300,000 BTC.

How Many Bitcoin Have Been Stolen?

It's unclear exactly how many bitcoins have been stolen.

850,000 BTC were stolen in the Mt. Gox hack, which was the largest Bitcoin hack ever. Another 120,000 BTC were stolen from Bitfinex in 2016. Together, that adds up to about 970,000 BTC.

Stolen BTC, however, does mean lost BTC. It's likely these stolen coins are still circulating, and may not even be in the hands of the original thieves.

What Happens When All 21 Million Bitcoins Are Mined?

Right now, miners earn most of their income via the block reward. When all 21 million bitcoins are mined, there won't be a block reward to pay to miners.

When a Bitcoin user sends a BTC transaction, a small fee is attached. These fees go to miners and this is what will be used to pay miners instead of the block reward.