Bitcoins 800,000th mined block – what’s next?

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The Bitcoin (BTC) network has produced its 800,000 block since its inception in 2009, with only 40,000 blocks remaining to be mined before the network’s next mining reward is halved.

The 800,000th block contained 3,721 transactions at 1.64MB, with the price of BTC trading at $29,815 on July 24, as noted by market researcher Dylan LeClair on Twitter:

Block #Bitcoin 800,000. pic.twitter.com/Yw9c6klqbY

— Dylan LeClair (@DylanLeClair_) July 24, 2023

The milestone was widely shared on the social media platform on July 24, with Bitcoin supporters and industry commentators pointing to the milestone as an indicator of the network’s security and resilience:

The #Bitcoin network has just produced block number 800,000.

800,000 blocks without a central bank.

800,000 blocks without a government.

800,000 blocks without CEO.

800,000 blocks without asking permission. pic.twitter.com/hf8RpC3jlP

— Walker (@WalkerAmerica) July 24, 2023

The block height of Bitcoins is basically a measure of the sequential blocks of the blockchain, which contain transactions and data that are aggregated into blocks by miners on the network. Block height also serves as a measure of a specific block relative to the genesis block, the founding block of the chain of networks.

: 800,000th block of bitcoins mined! pic.twitter.com/uGKi15zRaO

— Documenting itcoin (@DocumentingBTC) July 24, 2023

The metric acts as a chronological order of network transactions and blocks, with each new block connected to the previous one in the chain. This allows users to identify the order in which trades are recorded.

Block height also serves as a measure of the immutability of Bitcoins. The more blocks added to the chain, the more computing power it will take for a malicious actor to attempt to tamper with previous blocks.

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As previously explored by Cointelegraph, a 50% attack would require an attacker to acquire enough computing power to recalculate the proof of work for each subsequent block of a block containing a forged transaction.

Block height also serves as a metric used to maintain Bitcoin mining difficulty. Proof-of-work blockchain networks have their mining difficulty adjusted periodically based on the total computing power of the network and the time it took to mine a certain number of previous blocks.

The Bitcoins network aims to have a new block generated every 10 minutes. If more hash power is added to the network at any given time, it will influence this metric and the network will automatically adjust the mining difficulty every two weeks to maintain balance.

The height of the Bitcoin block also dictates the amount of Bitcoin rewarded to miners for adding a new block to the network. The Bitcoins protocol is designed to have block halving events every 4 years, or 210,000 blocks on chain.

Source: Nicehash

The initial block reward was 50 BTC in 2009, before it was halved to 25 BTC, 12.5 BTC, and currently 6.25 BTC in 2012, 2016, and 2020.

The next bitcoin halving is set to take place in April 2024, with the latest block reward being halved to 3.125 BTC. Halving events historically coincide with major price moves for BTC and the broader cryptocurrency markets.

With less than a year to go until the next halving, other macro events have also halted Bitcoin’s price decline after its last major peak at $69,000. Analysts and commentators have speculated that the latest Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) filings from global asset managers such as BlackRock and Fidelity indicate renewed institutional interest in Bitcoin.

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