January 13 marked an important milestone for Bitcoin when 16.8 million bitcoins (BTC), or 80 percent of the total supply, were mined. This means that only 4.2 million bitcoins, or 20 percent, have not yet been mined, of up to 21 million representing the total capitalization of their market.
The BTC has the capitalization of 21 million incorporated in its protocol by Satoshi Nakamoto, who mentioned it for the first time in its White Paper in 2008, as a way of introducing digital shortages to the cryptocurrency. With a capitalization of this magnitude, the more bitcoins are mined, the more scarcity is produced in the market.
Scarcity could be said to create demand, which in turn makes currencies more valuable. Once the 21 million bitcoins have been extracted, it will be even more difficult to obtain them, also making each currency potentially more valuable.
Currently, miners receive 12.5 BTC as a reward for each mine block, but the Nakamoto protocol also requires that the mining reward be reduced by half every 210,000 blocks, or approximately four years. The next division of mining will take place in two years, approximately at the beginning of June 2020, depending on the speed with which they mine, decreasing the rewards to 6.25 BTC per block mined.
Not every digital currency is exploitable like the BTC. Some cryptocurrencies are created with the entire offer released at the same time, in which case the total supply is maintained or is in circulation and there is no way to "mine" or mint new coins.
Some examples of non-exploitable digital currencies are Ripple, IOTA, NEM, NEO, Qtum, Omisego, Lisk, Stratis, Waves, and EOS.
Increase in the offer
Skeptics have proposed that it is theoretically possible to increase the supply of the 21 million Bitcoin through 51 percent or a Sybil attack, but to date none of these manipulations have proved viable in the case of the BTC.
The Krypton altcoin, whose base is the Ethereum, experienced a 51 percent attack in August 2016, but no other such attack has taken place since then.
The BTC is still recovering from the market decline of December 22, trading at an average of $ 14,200 and a maximum of approximately 4.75 percent for 24 hours