The nature of bitcoin-mining is such that the amount of mining power increases until the cost of mining one bitcoin is just a few percents less than the price of one bitcoin, making it marginally profitable, much like any business in the world that operates on a few percents net profit after expenses.
Thus when the price of bitcoin drops under the base cost of mining, miners stop selling and begin buying in order to make up for the losses of not being able to sell once the price rises, as it virtually must if you know you're a competitive low-cost miner and the price is under your cost of production.
This is what happened in late 2012 with the first block-reward halving (BRH), miners kept mining but stopped selling, and started buying.
The resulting supply shock resulted in a historic price rise from ~$12 to averaging over $100 for most of the rest of that year with some variation.
Now, we have another block-reward halving coming up in late 2016. If miner's are mining just barely profitably at whatever the price is at that time, do you agree the price of bitcoin must roughly double to support the cost of mining? I can't see any obvious reason why this shouldn't be true.
Of course it's quite likely that speculators will price this expectation in and the price may actually begin rising considerably months before the BRH (block-reward halving). But nonetheless, around that time do you expect to see a considerable price increase? Why or why not?
Ultimately this can kickstart a much higher market cap for all bitcoin, and less supply, meaning more price stability overall.
It may also kick-off another period of investment in mining by the large mining companies who will want to use it as an opportunity to expand, to have equipment ready as lower-efficiency miners will be forced to shut-off their equipment, another slice of the pie will be up for grabs if you can just weather the storm of price shock for a few months.
Nonetheless, we should throw a BRH party when it happens!

Hi - I have been trying to find the answer to this question, but have had no luck, so here I am.
If each halving cuts the mining reward in half, once we get to the halvings of the 30s/40s, when the halving only cuts satoshis off of the reward and not whole bitcoin, shouldn’t that have less of an effect on miners as we keep going through these cycles, in turn having less of an effect on the actual value of a bitcoin?
Sorry if this is a newbie question, and thanks for any insight shared.

Welcome to the /Bitcoin Sticky FAQ

You've probably been hearing a lot about Bitcoin recently and are wondering what's the big deal? Most of your questions should be answered by the resources below but if you have additional questions feel free to ask them in the comments.
It all started with the release of the release of Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper however that will probably go over the head of most readers so we recommend the following videos for a good starting point for understanding how bitcoin works and a little about its long term potential:

• Video 1: Introduction to Bitcoin - Andreas Antonopoulos
• Video 2: The Trust Machine
• Video 3: Bitcoin 101 - Balaji Srinivasan

Some other great resources include Lopp.net, the Princeton crypto series and James D'Angelo's Bitcoin 101 Blackboard series.
Some excellent writing on Bitcoin's value proposition and future can be found at the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute.
Some Bitcoin statistics can be found here and here. Developer resources can be found here. Peer-reviewed research papers can be found here.
Potential upcoming protocol improvements and scaling resources here and here.
The number of times Bitcoin was declared dead by the media can be found here (LOL!)

Key properties of Bitcoin

• Limited Supply - There will only ever be 21,000,000 bitcoins created and they are issued in a predictable fashion, you can view the inflation schedule here. Once they are all issued Bitcoin will be truly deflationary. The halving countdown can be found here.
• Open source - Bitcoin code is fully auditable. You can read the source code yourself here.
• Accountable - The public ledger is transparent, all transactions are seen by everyone.
• Decentralized - Bitcoin is globally distributed across thousands of nodes with no single point of failure and as such can't be shut down similar to how Bittorrent works. You can even run a node on a Raspberry Pi.
• Censorship resistant - No one can prevent you from interacting with the bitcoin network and no one can censor, alter or block transactions that they disagree with, see Operation Chokepoint.
• Push system - There are no chargebacks in bitcoin because only the person who owns the address where the bitcoins reside has the authority to move them.
• Low fee scaling - On chain transaction fees depend on network demand and how much priority you wish to assign to the transaction. Most wallets calculate on chain fees automatically but you can view current fees here and mempool activity here. On chain fees may rise occasionally due to network demand, however instant micropayments that do not require confirmations are happening via the Lightning Network, a second layer scaling solution currently rolling out on the Bitcoin mainnet.
• Borderless - No country can stop it from going in/out, even in areas currently unserved by traditional banking as the ledger is globally distributed.
• Trustless - Bitcoin solved the Byzantine's Generals Problem which means nobody needs to trust anybody for it to work.
• Pseudonymous - No need to expose personal information when purchasing with cash or transacting.
• Secure - Encrypted cryptographically and can’t be brute forced or confiscated with proper key management such as hardware wallets.
• Programmable - Individual units of bitcoin can be programmed to transfer based on certain criteria being met
• Nearly instant - From a few seconds to a few minutes depending on need for confirmations. Transactions are irreversible after one or more confirmations.
• Peer-to-peer - No intermediaries with a cut, no need for trusted third parties.
• Portable - Bitcoins are digital so they are easier to move than cash or gold. They can even be transported by simply memorizing a string of words for wallet recovery (while cool this method is generally not recommended due to potential for insecure key generation by inexperienced users. Hardware wallets are the preferred method for new users due to ease of use and additional security).
• Scalable - While the protocol is still being optimized for increased transaction capacity, blockchains do not scale very well, so most transaction volume is expected to occur on Layer 2 networks built on top of Bitcoin.
• Divisible - Each bitcoin can be divided down to 8 decimals, which means you don't have to worry about buying an entire bitcoin.
• Designed Money - Bitcoin was created to fit all the fundamental properties of money better than gold or fiat

Where can I buy bitcoins?

Bitcoin.org and BuyBitcoinWorldwide.com are helpful sites for beginners. You can buy or sell any amount of bitcoin (even just a few dollars worth) and there are several easy methods to purchase bitcoin with cash, credit card or bank transfer. Some of the more popular resources are below, also check out the bitcoinity exchange resources for a larger list of options for purchases.

• Cash app
• Gemini
• Swan
• Bitstamp
• BitFinex
• Xapo
• Kraken
• Cex
• LocalBitcoins
• LibertyX
• P2P exchange list (decentralized)

Here is a listing of local ATMs. If you would like your paycheck automatically converted to bitcoin use Bitwage.
Note: Bitcoins are valued at whatever market price people are willing to pay for them in balancing act of supply vs demand. Unlike traditional markets, bitcoin markets operate 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. Preev is a useful site that that shows how much various denominations of bitcoin are worth in different currencies. Alternatively you can just Google "1 bitcoin in (your local currency)".

Securing your bitcoins

With bitcoin you can "Be your own bank" and personally secure your bitcoins OR you can use third party companies aka "Bitcoin banks" which will hold the bitcoins for you.

• If you prefer to "Be your own bank" and have direct control over your coins without having to use a trusted third party, then you will need to create your own wallet and keep it secure. If you want easy and secure storage without having to learn computer security best practices, then a hardware wallet such as the Trezor, Ledger or ColdCard is recommended. Alternatively there are many software wallet options to choose from here depending on your use case.
  
• If you prefer to let third party "Bitcoin banks" manage your coins, try Gemini but be aware you may not be in control of your private keys in which case you would have to ask permission to access your funds and be exposed to third party risk.
  

Note: For increased security, use Two Factor Authentication (2FA) everywhere it is offered, including email!
2FA requires a second confirmation code to access your account making it much harder for thieves to gain access. Google Authenticator and Authy are the two most popular 2FA services, download links are below. Make sure you create backups of your 2FA codes.

Google Auth	Authy	OTP Auth
Android	Android	N/A
iOS	iOS	iOS

Watch out for scams

As mentioned above, Bitcoin is decentralized, which by definition means there is no official website or Twitter handle or spokesperson or CEO. However, all money attracts thieves. This combination unfortunately results in scammers running official sounding names or pretending to be an authority on YouTube or social media. Many scammers throughout the years have claimed to be the inventor of Bitcoin. Websites like bitcoin(dot)com and the btc subreddit are active scams. Almost all altcoins (shitcoins) are marketed heavily with big promises but are really just designed to separate you from your bitcoin. So be careful: any resource, including all linked in this document, may in the future turn evil. Don't trust, verify. Also as they say in our community "Not your keys, not your coins".

Where can I spend bitcoins?

Check out spendabit or bitcoin directory for millions of merchant options. Also you can spend bitcoin anywhere visa is accepted with bitcoin debit cards such as the CashApp card. Some other useful site are listed below.

Store	Product
Gyft	Gift cards for hundreds of retailers including Amazon, Target, Walmart, Starbucks, Whole Foods, CVS, Lowes, Home Depot, iTunes, Best Buy, Sears, Kohls, eBay, GameStop, etc.
Spendabit, Overstock and The Bitcoin Directory	Retail shopping with millions of results
ShakePay	Generate one time use Visa cards in seconds
NewEgg and Dell	For all your electronics needs
Bitwa.la, Coinbills, Piixpay, Bitbill.eu, Bylls, Coins.ph, Bitrefill, LivingRoomofSatoshi, Coinsfer, and more	Bill payment
Menufy, Takeaway and Thuisbezorgd NL	Takeout delivered to your door
Expedia, Cheapair, Destinia, Abitsky, SkyTours, the Travel category on Gyft and 9flats	For when you need to get away
Cryptostorm, Mullvad, and PIA	VPN services
Namecheap, Porkbun	Domain name registration
Stampnik	Discounted USPS Priority, Express, First-Class mail postage

Coinmap and AirBitz are helpful to find local businesses accepting bitcoins. A good resource for UK residents is at wheretospendbitcoins.co.uk.
There are also lots of charities which accept bitcoin donations.

Merchant Resources

There are several benefits to accepting bitcoin as a payment option if you are a merchant;

• 1-3% savings over credit cards or PayPal.
• No chargebacks (final settlement in 10 minutes as opposed to 3+ months).
• Accept business from a global customer base.
• Increased privacy.
• Convert 100% of the sale to the currency of your choice for deposit to your account, or choose to keep a percentage of the sale in bitcoin if you wish to begin accumulating it.

If you are interested in accepting bitcoin as a payment method, there are several options available;

• BTCPay
• Square cash
• Stripe
• Coinify
• Wyre
• Blockonomics (direct to your wallet)

Can I mine bitcoin?

Mining bitcoins can be a fun learning experience, but be aware that you will most likely operate at a loss. Newcomers are often advised to stay away from mining unless they are only interested in it as a hobby similar to folding at home. If you want to learn more about mining you can read more here. Still have mining questions? The crew at /BitcoinMining would be happy to help you out.
If you want to contribute to the bitcoin network by hosting the blockchain and propagating transactions you can run a full node using this setup guide. If you would prefer to keep it simple there are several good options. You can view the global node distribution here.

Earning bitcoins

Just like any other form of money, you can also earn bitcoins by being paid to do a job.

Site	Description
WorkingForBitcoins, Bitwage, Cryptogrind, Coinality, Bitgigs, /Jobs4Bitcoins, BitforTip, Rein Project	Freelancing
Lolli	Earn bitcoin when you shop online!
OpenBazaar, Purse.io, Bitify, /Bitmarket, 21 Market	Marketplaces
/GirlsGoneBitcoin NSFW	Adult services
A-ads, Coinzilla.io	Advertising

You can also earn bitcoins by participating as a market maker on JoinMarket by allowing users to perform CoinJoin transactions with your bitcoins for a small fee (requires you to already have some bitcoins.

Bitcoin-Related Projects

The following is a short list of ongoing projects that might be worth taking a look at if you are interested in current development in the bitcoin space.

Project	Description
Lightning Network	Second layer scaling
Blockstream, Rootstock and Drivechain	Sidechains
Hivemind and Augur	Prediction markets
Tierion and Factom	Records & Titles on the blockchain
BitMarkets, DropZone, Beaver and Open Bazaar	Decentralized markets
JoinMarket and Wasabi Wallet	CoinJoin implementation
Coinffeine and Bisq	Decentralized bitcoin exchanges
Keybase	Identity & Reputation management
Abra	Global P2P money transmitter network
Bitcore	Open source Bitcoin javascript library

Bitcoin Units

One Bitcoin is quite large (hundreds of £/$/€) so people often deal in smaller units. The most common subunits are listed below:

Unit	Symbol	Value	Info
bitcoin	BTC	1 bitcoin	one bitcoin is equal to 100 million satoshis
millibitcoin	mBTC	1,000 per bitcoin	used as default unit in recent Electrum wallet releases
bit	bit	1,000,000 per bitcoin	colloquial "slang" term for microbitcoin (μBTC)
satoshi	sat	100,000,000 per bitcoin	smallest unit in bitcoin, named after the inventor

For example, assuming an arbitrary exchange rate of $10000 for one Bitcoin, a $10 meal would equal:

• 0.001 BTC
• 1 mBTC
• 1,000 bits
• 100k sats

For more information check out the Bitcoin units wiki.
Still have questions? Feel free to ask in the comments below or stick around for our weekly Mentor Monday thread. If you decide to post a question in /Bitcoin, please use the search bar to see if it has been answered before, and remember to follow the community rules outlined on the sidebar to receive a better response. The mods are busy helping manage our community so please do not message them unless you notice problems with the functionality of the subreddit.
Note: This is a community created FAQ. If you notice anything missing from the FAQ or that requires clarification you can edit it here and it will be included in the next revision pending approval.
Welcome to the Bitcoin community and the new decentralized economy!

Bitcoin's mining ecosystem is saturated. Period.
The ASIC race has weakened as it has moved closer to the technological limits - achieving some kind of fragile balance. The best proof of this is Bitmain's search for new areas (vide: AI research)
After more than a decade, we are smarter than Satoshi at least in one area - we have the knowledge acquired over these more than ten years ...
"Bitcoin should have had a 0.1% or 1% monetary inflation tax to pay for security." (Peter Todd): https://www.google.com/search?q=peter+todd+inflation
If someone cannot accept the inevitability of this right now - let him think if he would change his mind while he sees the consecutive halvings - after which the network hashrate drops half by half - and does not return to the previous level, ever... (I suppose we can see that process in 4 years already...)
And the trigger could be like this (of course after general consensus):

• If on X (e.g. 2016) blocks before the incoming halving the network difficulty is lower than 212016 blocks backward - the next halving should be removed - as a strictly destructive event now for the Bitcoin network (or greater X for smooth hardfork)

That would be an "organoleptic" determination of the optimal inflation rate for the Bitcoin network - and there is simply no better way to determine it. Just don't belive such simplification, when is hard to find an optimum for something - the ultimate solution is zero. It's not.
Remember, that Bitcoin is not an entity detached from the reality. There are various limitations, e.g. nanometer-based technological processes limitations, there is a finite amount of cheap energy that can be obtained on a global scale, etc.) Bitcoin functions in certain realities - whether we like it or not.
Sooner or later the situation described above will get us. It is worth to be prepared mentally for it - and not to start another war, but rather discuss it calmly. If, for example, 90% of the community considers that something is necessary for the development of bitcoin - such a change will take place.
For example, the theoretical exchange of ECDSA due to the threat of quantum computers - acceptance would take place at an express rate. It will be similar in this matter. Just it shouldn't be too late for corrective action.
The small inflation rate, decreasing continuosly and slowly but never to zero, and last but not least: determined by reality - seems to be the most proper measure in this case.
Ceterum censeo...
EDIT: If:
a) tx fees are able to keep miners mining - perfect
b) miners are pushed out by consecutive halvings - not perfect
What I proposed is unbiased way for checking that (bitcoin ecosystem overall health):
if(current_network_hashrate < network_hashrate_4_years_ago) {
do_something();
}
else do_nothing();

Lets start off by saying I have called a lot of the dips back in 2016-2020 just check my posts on here and bitcointalk. I know this might dip, and hell we might even see 10,500-11K again. There is just too many forces at work for this not to go a lot higher though.
#1 is you have Greyscale and other companies picking up huge amounts of bitcoin almost double even what the miners are able to produce per block. Simply put the supply is dwindling and the upward pressure will be too strong at some point. The miners tend to sell some of their rewards, but they are not selling all.
#2 The dollar is in a really bad situation here. If people are noticing the main correlation of where bitcoin price goes it lies in the strength/weakness of the dollar. With 28 trillion in debt I am not sure how we make it out of this hole. I don't think you will see it completely collapse, however the printing presses are really going full tilt which inflation is under control right now, but for how long ? One of the major currencies Dollar, Yen, Euro, or Yuan will come close to collapsing in the next few years. Fiat can only go for so long before it needs a hard re-set.
#3 Mining rewards were halved. I know this was months ago, but not having double the bitcoin being dumped is a huge advantage. The bitcoin is in strong hands / hodlers.
#3 the Defi game has changed the landscape. More and more people are going to jump on the Defi bandwagon and get their bitcoins wrapped or use Blockfi, Aave ect. In the short term these can be used to short bitcoin, but it's already creating a wave of buying so people can get the yield. This has more advantages on upward price movements as it will control the tempo. On the other side of this however is in a year or two one of these will blow up taking everyone's btc with them so be careful.
#4 On August 1st we had a sell off where they pushed the bid down from 12k to 10,500 in 15 minutes on massive sell orders and some stop loss selling. Each tumble like that is getting more and more expensive. These pushes are to scoop up the derivatives they buy before the major sell offs . This has been a ongoing trend in bitcoin from even the early years (not the derivatives side). As time goes on and there are less and less coins these are getting way more expensive to manipulate it on the short side. That's why they did the dump in such a short time frame, because the longer the dump is going to cost even more money.
Overall I can really see this taking off again soon after the consolidation. I also believe we take out the ATH here in a few months.