Tick tock, next block. The Bitcoin network passed block 800,000 with less than a year to go to the next block reward halving.
The Bitcoin (BTC) network has produced its 800,000 block since its inception in 2009, with just 40,000 blocks left to mine before the network’s next mining reward halving.
The 800,000th block contained 3721 transactions at 1.64MB, with the price of BTC trading at $29,815 on July 24, as market researcher Dylan LeClair noted on Twitter:
#Bitcoin block 800,000. pic.twitter.com/Yw9c6klqbY
— Dylan LeClair (@DylanLeClair_) July 24, 2023
The milestone was widely shared across the social media platform on July 24, with Bitcoin proponents and industry commentators highlighting the milestone as an indicator of network security and resilience:
The #Bitcoin network just produced block number 800,000.
800,000 blocks without a central bank.
800,000 blocks without a government.
800,000 blocks without a CEO.
800,000 blocks without asking for permission. pic.twitter.com/hf8RpC3jlP
— Walker⚡️ (@WalkerAmerica) July 24, 2023
Bitcoin’s block height at its core is a measure of the sequential blocks of the blockchain, which contain transactions and data that are bundled into blocks by network miners. Block height also serves as a measure of a specific block in relation to the genesis block, the founding block of the network’s chain.
₿: 800,000th bitcoin block mined! pic.twitter.com/uGKi15zRaO
— Documenting ₿itcoin (@DocumentingBTC) July 24, 2023
The metric acts as a chronological order of transactions and blocks of the network, with each new block connected to the previous one in the chain. This assists in allowing users to identify the order in which transactions are recorded.
Block height also serves as a measure of Bitcoin’s immutability. The more blocks added to the chain, the more computing power will be required in order for a malicious actor to attempt to tamper with previous blocks.
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As previously explored by Cointelegraph, a 50 percent attack would require an attacker to acquire enough computing power to recalculate the proof-of-work of every subsequent block of a tampered transaction-containing block.
Block height also serves as a measure used to maintain Bitcoin’s mining difficulty. Proof-of-work based blockchain networks have their mining difficulty of mining adjusted periodically based on the total computational power of the network and the time it took to mine a certain number of previous blocks.
Bitcoin’s network aims to have a new block generated every 10 minutes. If more hashing power is added to the network at a given time, this would influence this metric and the network automatically adjusts the mining difficulty every two weeks to maintain equilibrium.
Bitcoin’s block height also dictates the amount of Bitcoin rewarded to miners for adding a new block to the network. Bitcoin’s protocol is designed to have block halving events every 4 years, or 210,000 blocks on the chain.
The initial block reward was 50 BTC back in 2009, before it subsequently halved to 25 BTC, 12.5 BTC and currently 6.25 BTC in 2012, 2016 and 2020.
Bitcoin’s next halving is earmarked to take place in April 2024, with the latest block reward halving to 3.125 BTC. Halving events historically coincide with major price rallies for BTC and the wider cryptocurrency markets.
With less than a year to the next halving, other macro events have also arrested Bitcoin’s price decline following its last major peak at $69,000. Analysts and commentators have speculated that the latest Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) filings from the likes of global asset managers BlackRock and Fidelity indicate renewed institutional interest in Bitcoin.
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