Despite being very much a monetary experiment, there are clues in Bitcoin’s design to suggest that it was definitely not intended to be some passing fad. One of these is the fact that the leading cryptocurrency features an issuance schedule intended to conclude more than 120 years from now.

One thing that unites most Bitcoin investors today is the fact that they thought they were late to the party when they bought their first satoshis. Typically, those encountering Bitcoin or the concept of cryptocurrency for the first time dismiss it, thinking that such a radically different way of thinking about money couldn’t possibly work.

Still Early to the Bitcoin Party

When it becomes clear to them that Bitcoin isn’t going away, some give the subject a bit more attention. Yet, many of those that are now sold on the idea of decentralized, digital money, whether they chose to invest or not, felt that they missed all the of the upside potential of the asset because the price had already increased by several orders of magnitude in preceding years.

However, reminding us of the stage we are still at in this point in what may become the most disruptive technology ever, is Satoshi Citadel Industries co-founder, Miguel Cuneta.

In a Tweet detailing the Bitcoin issuance schedule, Cuneta stated that there will still be another 31 Bitcoin halving events. This refers to scheduled decreases in mining rewards, cutting the previous reward in half after the completion of each stage.

Life and Death

Currently, miners receive 12.5 BTC each time they add a new block to the Bitcoin blockchain. In May of next year, after the next halving, this will decrease to 6.25 BTC. These halvings occur every 210,000 blocks, which is about every fours years. This means that the last Bitcoin is estimated to be mined in the year 2140.

If Bitcoin is to survive until the end of its halving schedule, Cuneta points out that this is indeed a very early stage in the cryptocurrency’s story since there have been just two previous halvings to date. With the third to happen next May, we are not even one-tenth of the way through the issuance schedule.

Of course, there are no guarantees that Bitcoin will still be around to complete its issuance schedule. No one can accurately say that there will be no event to occur in the next 120 years to render the cryptocurrency obsolete. That being said, if the first ten years of Bitcoin are anything to go by, it looks likely that we’ll be experiencing at least a few more halving events in the coming years and decades.

What do you think about Bitcoin’s chances of surviving until 2140? What kind of events do you think could bring about its ultimate demise? Let us hear your thoughts below.

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