Halving

Happened at Block 630000

“This halving, the third in BTG’s blockchain history, will happen exactly at block 630 000.”
(Blocks are found at random, averaging one block per 10 minutes.)

What is a Halving?

It’s when the mining reward is cut in half. BTG, a variant of Bitcoin made to be mined on GPUs, continues the same halving schedule as Bitcoin. The reward is cut in half every 210 000 blocks, roughly every four years. The initial reward was 50 per block; the first halving (at block 210 000) cut it to 25, and the second halving (at block 420 000) cut it to 12.5. And now? It’s going to be cut to 6.25.

What Are Rewards?

The mining reward is the only source of new BTG.

The BTG reward goes to the miners who find the block. It’s why many miners mine, and it’s how they get paid for it. Miners are people all over the world with GPUs in their computers. Anyone can mine BTG.

In BTG, as in Bitcoin, 100% of mining rewards go to the miners.

There are just over 18 million BTG today (the “supply”). Because the new issuance will continue to be cut in half every four years, the total supply will never grow beyond 21 million.

  • Think of the new issuance in terms of supply inflation. At one block per 10 minutes, about 1800 BTG are created daily:
    6 per hour x 24 hours = 144 blocks per day, x 12.5 BTG per block is 1800 BTG per day.

  • With a current supply of just over 18 million BTG, that’s daily inflation of roughly 1,800/18,000,000 = 0.0001, or 0.01%. Multiply that out over 365 days, and that’s an inflation rate of about 3.65% per year.

  • After the halving, there will only be 900 new BTG per day (144 x 6.25), and at block 630 000, the supply will be a little under 18.4 million – so we’ll have daily inflation of 900/18,375,000, just under 0.00005. That’s about 0.005% per day, under 1.8% per year!

  • The inflation rate will never rise! It will continue to fall slightly with each block that goes by, and to be cut in half after each additional 210 000 blocks.