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How many Satoshis are there in one Bitcoin?
Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) is getting expensive these days. The oldest cryptocurrency today costs $67,400 per digital coin. It’s not small money, and the high price could prevent many potential Bitcoin buyers from taking the plunge.
Fortunately, you don’t have to buy an entire Bitcoin.
Money is broken down into 100 million Satoshis. Named after the enigmatic founder of the Bitcoin project, Satoshi Nakamoto, one Satoshi is worth $0.00067 at current prices.
It’s like dollars and cents, except that the penny unit of Bitcoin is a much smaller portion than 1/100.
This unit is arguably more useful than the clunky Bitcoin coin if you hope to use cryptocurrency in real-world transactions. A cheap hamburger might cost $6.74, or 10,000 Satoshi. For 100,000 Satoshi you could buy a few pizzas for the family or maybe a concert ticket. Nice and easy.
These nice round numbers are easier to manage than those of Bitcoin. This burger would cost 0.0001 Bitcoin – easily confused with 0.00001, which should only net you bubble gum. Using Satoshi instead of Bitcoin should lead to fewer decimal debates at crypto-friendly burger stands.
Bitcoin’s supply line is measured in Satoshis
The Satoshi Unit also limits the extent to which Bitcoin halving rewards can be used. Bitcoin miners are currently receiving 3,125 new Bitcoins in exchange for validating a data block, up from 6.5 coins earlier this year. About 500 new coins are minted every day, also down by half since Bitcoin’s April 2024 halving.
Halvings are performed every 210,000 validated data blocks, which corresponds to a cycle of approximately four years. Around 2136, the 31st halving will give Bitcoin miners one Satoshi per data block. Four years later, the 32nd and final halving drops the reward below 1 Satoshi, stopping the halving process and Bitcoin inflation.
Thus, the final Satoshi will be issued around 2140, completing the limited set of 21 million Bitcoins. There are already 19.7 million coins in circulation, or 93.8% of the lifetime supply. This scarcity contributes largely to Bitcoin’s appeal, as it protects its long-term value.
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Anders Bylund has positions in Bitcoin. The Motley Fool posts and recommends Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
How many Satoshis are there in one Bitcoin? was originally published by The Motley Fool