The supply of Bitcoin is low at the moment and the latest reports indicate that the 17 millionth bitcoin has been mined. That means there are only 4 million left.
It is worth noting that the built-in artificial scarcity is one of the crucial attributes about the currency. Aside from that, it could also explain the higher prices recently.
Bitcoin miners come up with a new Bitcoin block about every ten minutes. It requires powerful computers to effectively store Bitcoin transaction data and it is the same factor that brings the possibility of updating the most recent transactions.
Mining nodes play a significant role when it comes to the verification of transactions. Several miners are given Bitcoin as a reward and every new data block provides 12.5 Bitcoins to miners. That implies in every passing day about 1,800 Bitcoins are created but that shouldn’t be mistaken to mean that it will always be the case.
In the past, miners used to receive 50 BTC per block mined, however, with the passage of time the rewards continue halving with every 210,000 blocks getting mined. Back in 2012, it went down by 25 BTC and that particular event was referred to as halving.
By 2016, it stood at 12.5 BTC. If things pan out according to the set expectations, it is expected that the next halving will take place in late 2019/early 2020. The supply of Bitcoin at any given point of time dictates a lot about its overall value. A limited supply definitely points to a rise in value.
One distinguishing attribute about Bitcoin is the fact that it is possible to spend it even during those moments when its demand has overtaken the supply.