The 17 millionth bitcoin is mined in block number 520014 , about a year and a half after the 16 millionth bitcoin was mined. There will never be more than 21 million bitcoins, with 80% of all bitcoins that will ever exist in circulation with only four million bitcoins going. 17 million bitcoins seems like a lot, but it is not even enough when every Dutch person would want one - let alone every human being on earth. Fortunately, each bitcoin can be divided into 100 million satoshis , so that the total stock of satoshi's is 2.1 billion. Enough to go around so.

Not in our time

Before the last of these four million bitcoins is mined, however, we are not a few years further, but more than a century. The last bitcoins will only be mined around May 2140. Chances are that most of us will not experience this day. A pity, but at the same time fascinating to think about what role bitcoin will play in our society by then. Once again it is a historic milestone and once again realizes that bitcoin has for the first time succeeded in creating digital scarcity. Bitcoin is programmed to continue for a long time in the future, but in 2140 it does not just stop. At that time, the miners are compensated by the fees that are paid for transactions, instead of new bitcoins created.

Every 10 minutes a new bitcoin block is found by the miners, in exchange for the work that the miners do they get a reward in the form of newly created bitcoins. In the beginning of bitcoin, 2009, this was 50 bitcoins per block. Every 210,000th block halves this reward. This has happened twice in the past, and we are now at 12.5 bitcoins per block. At this moment about 1800 new bitcoins are mined per day. The next halving will take place around May 2020. This halving will continue until the last bitcoin is mined, in 2140. The issue curve looks like this by this halving: