How Many Satoshis Are in a Bitcoin?
Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) is getting pricey these days. The oldest cryptocurrency costs $67,400 per digital coin today. That's not chump change, and the beefy price tag may keep many potential Bitcoin buyers from taking the plunge.
Fortunately, you don't have to buy a whole Bitcoin.
The currency breaks down into 100 million Satoshis. Named after the Bitcoin project's enigmatic founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, one Satoshi is worth $0.00067 at today's prices.
It's like dollars and cents, except Bitcoin's cent-like unit is a much smaller portion than 1/100.
This unit is arguably more useful than the clumsy Bitcoin coin if you hope to use cryptocurrency in real-world transactions. A cheap burger could cost $6.74, or 10,000 Satoshi. For 100,000 Satoshi, you could grab a couple of pizzas for the family or maybe a concert ticket. Nice and easy.
These nice, round numbers are easier to handle than Bitcoin's. That burger would cost 0.0001 Bitcoin -- easily confused with 0.00001, which should get you only bubble gum. Using Satoshi instead of Bitcoin should lead to fewer decimal-point debates at crypto-friendly burger stands.
Bitcoin's supply line is measured in Satoshis
The Satoshi unit also limits the extent to which Bitcoin's halving rewards can be used. Bitcoin miners currently get 3.125 new Bitcoins in return for validating a data block, down from 6.5 coins earlier this year. About 500 new coins are minted every day, also down by half since the Bitcoin halving of April 2024.
The halvings are done after every 210,000 validated data blocks, which works out to an approximate four-year cycle. Somewhere around the year 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, which stops the halving process and Bitcoin inflation.
So, the final Satoshi will be issued around the year 2140, completing the limited set of 21 million Bitcoins. There are already 19.7 million coins in circulation, 93.8% of the lifetime supply. This scarcity is a big part of Bitcoin's appeal, protecting its value in the long run.
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Anders Bylund has positions in Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
