80% of All Bitcoins Found
There are several appealing factors that make Bitcoins attractive. For one, bitcoins can be used for interactions between other bitcoin-users globally without having to go through a bank, which is ultimately cheaper. Secondly, a bitcoin account can never be frozen, and thirdly, you can purchase everyday items wherever bitcoin is accepted as a currency. The only catch is that earning bitcoins is harder than it seems. It is often compared to a gold rush, where only a few lucky people ever win the jackpot. There are various ways to earn bitcoins, such as through exchange, goods and services, and mining. Mining was created to ensure that two users interchanging goods through bitcoins make a transaction. Transactions are separated and stored into blockchains where users mine to guess a possible lock combination to unlock the boxes. It takes about, “1,789,546,951.05,” [1] tries to unlock a box, and as a reward, the user receives currently around 12.5 [2] bitcoins.
A single bitcoins value varies a lot, and as of January 15th at 10:20am, it was worth $13,736.30 [3]. The catch is that there is a set amount of 21 million bitcoins that can ever be found, and the benchmark for 80% of all bitcoins found was reached this past weekend. Around 16.5 million have already been discovered as of January 13th, 2018 [2]. It gets harder to find more bitcoins as the number found increases, and although 80% seems really close, the predicted year all bitcoins will be found is in 2140. Along with it becoming harder to find bitcoins as the amount found increases, every 210,000 blockchains that are opened the reward received is cut in half. Because bitcoin does not go through a bank and is only transferred via the internet, people are worried about its reliability. Stockbrokers and everyday bitcoin users are clashing over the question of whether bitcoins become more valuable as more of them are found. Some say that as more bitcoins are found, a single bitcoin’s worth will decline, while others say that the fewer that remain undiscovered, the more valuable each will be.
LAMPLIGHTER 