What is the maximum number of bitcoins. Bitcoin currency, what it is and how to use it for your own purposes: tips, recommendations, useful information

The galloping growth in the exchange rate of the two most popular cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin and Ethereum – is creating a stir around digital money. Both the mining of coins and the volume of investments in these currencies are increasing. More and more often questions arise: how many Bitcoins and Ethereum have already been mined, what is the maximum number of Bitcoins and whether the limit of cryptocurrencies will be exhausted, whether there will be enough cryptocurrencies for all...

Exhaustible and inexhaustible crypto coins

Cryptocurrencies can be divided into exhaustible ones, in the code of which a limit on the issue of coins is built in, and inexhaustible ones, which, on the contrary, can be mined endlessly. Of the 25 largest cryptocurrencies by capitalization, 17 (which is 68%) have an emission limit. These include Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ripple (XRP), Litecoin (LTC), etc. The developers of the remaining 8 of the analyzed cryptocurrencies do not have any limits (for example, Ethereum (ETH), Monero (XMR), NEM (XEM), etc.).

Below is a table showing the share of mined cryptocurrencies with limited emission.

Table - Bitcoin emission and the 24 largest crypto coins by capitalization
Source: calculation site according to coinmarketcap.com

How many bitcoins are left?

At the time of writing, the number of bitcoins in the cryptocurrency market was more than 16.8 million, which is 80% of the established emission limit. In other words, only 4.2 million bitcoins remain in the cryptocurrency depths.

The rate of Bitcoin emission is built into its code and is strictly limited. Every four years, production is halved. In addition, as the graph below shows, it becomes more difficult to find a new block every month.

Source: blockchain.info

In what year will all bitcoins be mined?

When will the last Bitcoin be mined? Around 2140, the last 21 millionth Bitcoin will appear; it is difficult to predict how much Bitcoin will cost and what will happen next. Some experts believe that by this time the rate may increase thousands of times compared to how much Bitcoin used to cost, due to the shortage, others believe that the developers will lift the emission limit and the rate will level out.

In addition, it is worth considering that during the circulation process, some part of BTC coins is constantly lost and goes into oblivion forever. According to DigRate research, about 21% of bitcoins are “dead” and not in circulation.

How much ether is there on the market?

One of the popular queries of Internet users is how many Ethereum coins there are. As stated above, Ethereum has not established a maximum number of coins issued, and this moment More than 96.9 million coins were mined.

The next logical question is how much ethereum will cost when the plan to issue all bitcoins is completed, and the amount of ETH will be hundreds, or even thousands of times higher than the amount of BTC. There is no clear opinion on this issue yet, and experts believe that by 2140 (by the time Bitcoin is exhausted), the cryptocurrency market will change beyond recognition.

It is worth noting that Vitalik Buterin (one of the creators of Ethereum) is thinking about limiting the emission of Ethereum, but he intends to do this not by analogy with Bitcoin, but in a more “cunning” way. The developer proposes to introduce a commission on applications created on the Ethereum blockchain system. This will contribute, according to Buterin, to the withdrawal of part of the tokens.

As for the difficulty of mining Ethereum, it, like Bitcoin, increases over time. However, at the end of October, after a protocol change, it became twice as easy to mine ETH.

The popularity of Bitcoin as the first and main cryptocurrency raises many questions around its functioning. The amount of digital money data, its emission, as well as its prospects, become the determining factors in the analysis of a given cryptocurrency and identifying trends in changes in its value.

Number of Bitcoins mined so far

On October 31, 2008, an article by Satoshi Nakamoto about cryptocurrency and bitcoins appeared. Mining of digital money data began on January 3, 2009, when the first block was formed and 50 coins (tokens) were received.

It is not difficult to identify the current amount of digital money mined. They turn to exchanges and analytical sites with similar information, for example,. This service offers statistics on all cryptocurrencies that are traded on at least one exchange.

The rating of digital money is ordered by its capitalization - the product of the number of mined tokens and the exchange value of one coin. November 1, 2017 the total number of bitcoins in the world is 16657812 BTC. Taking into account their cost - 6.5 thousand dollars each, the capitalization of this cryptocurrency is more than 109 billion - 59% of the entire digital money market.

The figures given are not accurate. In 2017, each decrypted block adds 12.5 bitcoins to the total amount. It takes about 10 minutes to decrypt a block, and 75 coins are added in an hour. Taking into account the simultaneous increase in value, capitalization also increases.

Where is the most mined?

The initial mining of bitcoins made it possible to mine new coins on a home computer, without investment. The first blocks could even be calculated on paper. However, over time, the process became more complicated based on two factors:

• the principle of forming a new block is the relationship with the previous ones, which creates a structure protected from the introduction of distorted data - a blockchain, however, the length of the chain increases the complexity of the algorithm for decrypting a new block;
• connecting new users and computing power.

The second aspect is based on the principle of self-regulation of the system. By connecting additional computing power, the process of generating new blocks is accelerated. Regular checks that detect such acceleration complicate the decryption algorithm based on the formation of one block every 10 minutes.

With the inclusion of large enterprises in Bitcoin mining, mining on a home computer without investment has become ineffective. It was necessary to buy more video cards and create entire farms to make a profit.

Then ASIC devices were developed - specialized chips for cryptocurrency mining, the performance of which was tens of times higher than modern video cards. Formation of large data centers where bitcoins are mined in industrial scale, made mining this cryptocurrency on video cards impractical.

The formation of large mines for bitcoin mining is carried out taking into account the following criteria:

• cheap electricity is the main principle affecting profitability;
• cheap rent of land and premises, inexpensive labor.

The largest Bitcoin mining farms in the world are located in China- Antpool, F2Pool and BTCC Pool. In addition to them, many mines of the Celestial Empire are located in the mountains of Tibet and Sichuan. This choice is based on a favorable climate and cheap electricity obtained from renewable sources.

In fourth place is the BitFury data center, located in Georgia. Many farms are located in Thailand and Malaysia, a Bitcoin mining mine has also opened in Ghana.

In Europe, the largest centers are the Czech Slush and the Swedish KnCMiner. In addition to them, large data centers are located in Northern Sweden and Iceland. One company that stands out is GenesisMining, which was the first to place video cameras in mines and provide online access to surveillance as proof of its existence. IN North America major centers are located in Washington state, where hydroelectric dams provide the cheapest electricity in the United States.

Maximum number of bitcoins in the world

The Bitcoin mining program determines their limited emission - only 21 million tokens. This value seems small, given the formation of a block every 10 minutes. However, the emission is based on the principle of inverse geometric progression, on the basis of which every 4 years the number of coins received for the formation of a new block is halved.

In the first 4 years, half of the bitcoins were mined - 10.5 million. Then the production decreased to 25 coins per block. After the mark of 15.75 million, a new decrease occurred and in 2017 only 12.5 coins are awarded for decrypting a block. In such a regression, the last token - its final fractional part - will be formed in 2140.

Based on the limited emission, fears are created for the future of Bitcoin. The main purpose of mining as a process is to maintain cryptocurrency, confirm transactions and protect against fraudulent activities. Coins are produced as a reward for connecting to the system.

The fear is that with low income, mining will become unprofitable and users will begin to disconnect from the system, which will make it vulnerable. Based on this factor, in the summer of 2017, disagreements arose between developers and miners, against the background of which the Bitcoin rate went into correction.

However, it is a little early to make predictions for 2140. In the future, the development of cryptocurrency may indeed lead to a loss of support among miners. However, their loyalty may be ensured by a transaction processing fee.

Now such a fee is insignificant, but no one knows how much 1 satoshi will cost in 100 years. In the first years, Bitcoin tokens were also bought for cents, but now they cost several thousand dollars, after just 8 years of existence.

Why is the number of bitcoins limited?

Many experts consider limiting the number of bitcoins to be a positive factor determining the upward trend in the value of the cryptocurrency. A situation is being created in which demand is created for money that is convenient for circulation around the world due to its limited availability.

21 million coins may seem like a small amount to the entire world. In this situation, the principle of splitting bitcoins is provided: each token is divided into 100 million parts, called satoshi - after the name of the developer. 1 satoshi is equal to 0.00000001 BTC.

The protocol of fragmentation and limited emission is an integral part of this cryptocurrency. It is not easy to answer the question why such a restriction was introduced. Official version- to increase interest and protect against inflation. Unofficially - this is what the developer decided.

The limited production of bitcoins truly becomes a reliable tool against the depreciation of digital money. However, it creates inflation of a different kind. The operating principle of cryptocurrency wallets does not allow you to restore account data. If a user loses access to it, he also loses the bitcoins in his account. These coins are simply frozen and actually go out of use.

According to some data, as of 2018, 4 million tokens are already inactive. Some of them were frozen by the owners themselves as long-term investments, but a significant portion of this money was simply lost. With such indicators, in addition to the software limit on the number of bitcoins, a tendency towards their reduction is also created. Which also has a positive effect on the value of the remaining coins.

Publication date: 2017-04-08

The emergence of cryptocurrency in 2009 became the impetus for the development of a unique direction - mining. From the first days of birth, thousands, and over time, hundreds of thousands of people began to mine cryptocurrency using the capacities at their disposal. And if on initial stage Mining on your own PC guaranteed acceptable results, but over time the income began to decline. The reason is the fall in the volume of available cryptocurrency and its limitations. The total number of Bitcoins that will be generated is limited to 21 million coins. The closer miners are to this figure, the more difficult it is to mine, and the more power is required to obtain cryptocurrency. Despite the complication of the mining process, the number of miners collecting or mining online specie coins varies accessible ways, is growing every day. Their multimillion-strong army is constantly replenished with new volunteers.

How many Bitcoins are there today?

Bitcoin generation - the direction they are engaged in large enterprises and individuals joining forces in pools. This process is called mining, that is, the extraction of coins by generating new blocks. Receiving cryptocurrency is based on complex calculations, and the process itself involves huge technical resources. Knowing how many Bitcoins there are in total, “miners” manage to adapt to current realities in a timely manner, purchase equipment, unite into more powerful pools, and use the capabilities of large mining companies.

Every day, about 3,600 coins are added to the overall cryptocurrency network. At the same time, the new injection makes the process of extracting the next batch more difficult for participants. In 2009-2012, Bitcoin mining was possible using a home PC. All that changed during that period were the requirements for hardware, namely the power of the video card and processor. At that time, it was possible to mine tens, or even hundreds of Bitcoins within a month. The greatest benefit was received by the first miners who extracted coins from minimal costs technical resource.

How many Bitcoins are there today? According to various sources, about 13 million coins have already been received. According to miners, the upper limit will be reached by the middle of the next century, around 2140. But what are the reasons for such a delay if 60% of the available Bitcoins have been mined over the past seven years? There are two of them:

• Increasing requirements for equipment used for cryptocurrency mining.
• Increasing the time required to mine 1 Bitcoin.

Against the background of the increasing complexity of the calculation process, large mining companies are appearing, focused on obtaining new coins. Their managers invest huge amounts of money and resources in the purchase of expensive equipment. They calculate exactly how many Bitcoins can be earned and how long it will take for the investment to pay off.

Over time, the resulting capacity is used to solve their own problems (capital accumulation) or to rent to other users. Such a business is in demand, because the number of people wishing to earn cryptocurrency is only growing.

Proof of change in the total number of Bitcoins

When considering the issue of the value of cryptocurrency and the features of its production, it is important to take into account the security factor. It is mentioned above how many Bitcoins will be generated in total (21,000,000) - of which almost 60% have been received. Each coin created can be used as a means of payment. Money has meaning if it is backed by something - debts, gold or other precious metal. Bitcoin cryptocurrency is an exception. Virtual money is not backed by gold, but is backed only by current supply and demand.

There is an opinion that the value of Bitcoin is supported by the amount of resources required to mine one coin. This is not true. In a way, cryptocurrency is backed by the value of the item set by the seller and the price the buyer is willing to pay.

There is another concern associated with buying large number coins Information about how many Bitcoins have already been mined is not a secret. What happens if someone decides to purchase big batch cryptocurrencies? The problem is that it is impossible to carry out such a transaction in one go. The seller will constantly raise the price until the buyer runs out of funds. In addition, not all Bitcoins are available for sale, not to mention the fact that 40% of the cryptocurrency is not mined at all.

It turns out that one coin is a means of payment, the exchange price of which depends on the current supply and demand. The closer the mining limit is, the higher the shortage and the faster the value of 1 Bitcoin grows. In addition, the cryptocurrency rate depends on a number of other factors - the possibility of using large countries, the relationship of financial regulators, the political situation and the use of coins by powerful market “players”.

So the question of how many Bitcoins there are today is primarily relevant for miners, market participants (traders) and people who accept coins as a means of payment.

How difficult is mining based on the fact how many Bitcoins are there in total?

The total number of Bitcoins is information that has not been a secret since the early days of the cryptocurrency. The emission of one coin is directly related to mining, which uses the computing power of different units. The process of earning cryptocurrency has gone through several stages, starting with work on personal computers and ending with the use of the power of large farms. At the same time, the issue of earning coins using one computer is a thing of the past. A new era has arrived - large pools and mining farms.

Official data shows that in the last 4-5 years alone, almost 11 million virtual coins have been generated. It is impossible to calculate how many Bitcoins can be received in the coming years. This depends on many factors - the popularity of the cryptocurrency, the level of power used, development technical sphere. Perhaps in 1-2 years there will be a machine capable of generating the remaining volume of coins within 1-2 years.

If you believe the statistics, then since 2009, the following trend has taken place - every four years the volume of mined coins decreases twice. What does it mean? If during the first four years, for example, 10 million coins were mined, then in the next similar period the figure will decrease by half (5 million), and then by the same amount (2.5 million). It turns out that the question of achieving total number Bitcoins will gradually move away. One day a situation will arise when 100 thousand coins remain to be mined, but this process will take several more years. The question is whether the strategic interest in cryptocurrency mining will remain in this case, or whether no one will engage in mining at all.

The knowledge that Bitcoin mining will sooner or later come to an end worries many users of the crypto network. Already today, dozens of theories are being put forward about what will happen to virtual currency and what its future will be. At the moment, such reasoning does not make sense. Knowing how many Bitcoins there are in total , should be perceived from the position of help, not a sentence.

The predicted year 2140 is still far away, but technological progress shows no sign of stopping. Perhaps in 5-10 years other money will appear, to which Bitcoin will lose in all respects. In the meantime, it’s worth taking advantage of the available opportunities and working on popularizing existing virtual coins. Current realities show that the release of cryptocurrency in 2009 was justified, which is also proven by the popularity of new coins. All that remains for miners is to take into account how many Bitcoins there are today and persistently continue to mine them. This is important as long as the new money brings profit and benefits to society.

Instead of an epilogue

The judgments made in the last part of the article undoubtedly lead to specific thoughts. However, people involved in mining should not worry about the future. Indeed, with the increase in the number of mined coins, the volume and scale of financial transactions carried out using Bitcoin grow. In the future, when cryptocurrencies dominate the global financial market, miners will change their activity profile, and individual computing nodes will receive quite reasonable commissions for approving each money transfer. The genius of Nakamoto's ideas is that, by that time, Bitcoin will have a very high value, and interest rates will be truly miserable compared to the standards in force in the modern financial world.

The emergence of Bitcoin in 2009 was the basis for the development of a unique direction in all respects, characterized as mining. Quite quickly after their appearance, hundreds of thousands of people decided to start mining cryptocurrency using the devices and computer equipment at their disposal. They are interested in how many Bitcoins have been mined to date. In this article you can find out how much currency has been mined today, as well as how much is left to be mined if the maximum number of coins in the world is set.

At the initial stage, mining carried out on a regular PC gave significant results, but over time, income indicators began to decline.

The reason for this phenomenon is that the total amount of cryptocurrency cannot be infinite, its quantity is limited.

Experts note that the number of Bitcoins generated will reach a maximum of 21 million coins. The closer modern users get to this indicator, the more complex the Bitcoin mining process is, and the more power is required to obtain it. Despite such difficulties, the number of miners is rapidly increasing. The multi-million army of people who want to earn money in this way is increasing almost every day with new volunteers.

Currency generation is a special area of ​​online earnings. It is carried out not only by private individuals, but also by fairly large enterprises that combine their forces in pools. This process is called mining or coin mining through the generation of new blocks. The process of obtaining cryptocurrency is based on complex tasks and actions in mathematics.

Huge modern resources are involved in solving them, innovative technical devices are involved.

Knowing that the number of Bitcoins is limited, the “miners” throw all their resources into mining, spend their earnings, full program use the capabilities of mining organizations.

Daily in shared network approximately 3,600 coins are added. New arrivals are increasingly costing users more and more complexity. According to certain data, users have already received 13 million coins. Users will be able to reach the upper limit around 2140. This decline in speed is based on two main reasons:

1. The requirements for the devices used to produce currency are constantly growing.
2. The time required to mine one Bitcoin increases significantly.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that modern mining companies, focused on the extraction of new coins, invest large sums on the purchase of new expensive equipment. Such organizations calculate as accurately as possible how many coins they need and how long it will take to return the invested funds.

Maximum number of Bitcoins in the world?

The number of cryptocurrency coins that can be mined over time is 21 million units. Currently, users have received approximately 60% of this amount. Each coin received is valid. Currency unlike ordinary ones monetary units backed not by gold and debt, but solely by supply and demand.

Professionals note that the ever-increasing value of Bitcoin is based on the amount of resources spent that are required to obtain each individual coin.

In some cases, currency is backed by the price of the product, which is set by the seller, as well as the price offered by the buyer.

How many Bitcoins are left to mine in 2019?

Information answering the question of how many Bitcoins are left to be mined this year and in general is not a secret. A failure in such forecasts can only occur if someone decides to purchase a large number of coins at once, which is unlikely.

The impossibility is based on the fact that the seller, knowing full well the situation with Bitcoins, will constantly increase the cost of the financial product, increasing it until the buyer has completely exhausted all funds.

Also, not all Bitcoins can be sold, especially since approximately 40% of the coins have not yet been mined at all, that is, it is clear how many Bitcoins there are at the moment and how many more are planned to be mined.

We can conclude that one coin is a means of making calculations with an exchange rate price that directly depends on the current demand and supply at a given moment. The closer the end of mining gets, the higher the currency shortage, the faster the cost of one Bitcoin increases.

The cost and quantity of mined coins is influenced not only by supply and demand, but by such factors as:

• Features of application in leading countries of the world;
• Relations of the main financial regulators;
• General political situation;
• Use of coins by powerful financial market players.

It is for this reason that the question of how many Bitcoins are left and at what price the coins are sold is relevant only for traders and for people who carry out basic calculations using currency.

Despite some forecasts indicating the possibility of cryptocurrency mining before 2140, many experts doubt this. The time to receive the last Bitcoin directly depends on large quantity factors. This includes the degree of popularity of the currency, the level of power used, and the development of the technical field. There is a good chance that in a year or two a machine will be developed that can generate all the remaining coins.

Why is the number of Bitcoins limited?

All miners know that the total number of bitcoins cannot exceed 21 million coins. Not everyone knows the reason for this restriction. The thing is that the production of new coins is spelled out as precisely as possible in the special btc protocol; it is “hardwired” into its main program code. Based on the new protocol, a reward can be paid to miners for each new block of transactions made to the blockchain. Initially, professional miners received about 50 coins for each block.

Summing up

The information in this article may be thought-provoking, but for people who are professional level engaged in mining, no need to worry. Simultaneously with the increase total number coins, the volumes and scale of financial transactions involving bitcoin are rapidly growing. In a few years, when the currency takes a dominant position in the modern financial market, professional miners will completely change the type of their activities.

After some time, individual calculation nodes will begin to receive decent commissions for approving a money transfer.

Bitcoin is no longer just some kind of virtual currency. She is the very first and unique. The value of this money is regularly growing, which is why there are more and more people who want to earn it. But everyone is interested in how much bitcoin is left for 2017. The extraction of this cryptocurrency is called mining, because the number of bitcoins spent and created is of interest to many, because they want to know how much of this currency is left.

But you don’t have to worry about this, since bitcoins are mined, but every year their extraction becomes more complicated, so the last bitcoins will be more and more difficult to mine. And this despite the fact that the interest of users mining cryptocurrency does not decrease. Let's see how long the bitcoins will last, but their quantity is strictly regulated, which allows the price of the crypto-type currency to increase.

How many bitcoins have been mined to date?

Mining bitcoins is becoming more and more difficult every year, and this is not just like that. According to statistics, as of July 18 of this year, it was estimated that users had already managed to mine 17 million, and they are now in circulation. But their number is not infinite, there are not many units left, so this digital currency will gradually only grow.

It appeared not so long ago, namely in 2009, with light hand Satoshi Nakamoto. But users are interested not only in how much currency has already been mined, but how much has been generated. The relevance of this interest lies in a number of the following reasons:

In addition, the more cryptocurrency is mined, the higher its price, which allows you to enjoy the benefits of mining while getting everything more money for one unit. Can Bitcoin be worth a million dollars or more? The answer will be unequivocal - maybe and even there will be, but whether the miners who mine them will have time to see this is a more complex question.

How many bitcoins can you mine?

21 million bitcoins can be brought into the world. That's exactly how much was created to make the system work. But cryptocurrencies will not disappear, they will simply go into circulation. That is, the mining process, at least regarding bitcoins, will cease to make sense. Considering that there are about 4 million left, we need to hurry up with mining. But this is not true, because according to the data that the calculator shows, the last Bitcoin will be received somewhere in 2140.

This is only preliminary data. The calculator shows statistics, but nothing more. For each block, miners are given 12.5 bitcoins, but due to scaling, this number will be halved. Last time this happened a year ago. Previously, until July last year, you could earn 25 bitcoins, but they cost almost three times less than now. And even earlier, Bitcoin cost less than a cent.

But then people didn’t know what to do with them. For example, there was a funny case where one person ordered two pizzas and paid for them with cryptocurrency. The food cost him ten thousand bitcoins. Now it is more than twenty-seven million dollars. Many have never seen so much money in their entire lives. We hope the pizza was at least tasty. Though good impression what will remain of her. Just imagine how much these 10,000 will cost in ten years. After all, every year production becomes exponentially more complicated, which means the exchange rate will rise.