“Bitcoin is hard-coded so that it has both a predictable emission schedule and a hard cap of 21 million bitcoin.”
Bitcoin was created to be money “with a fixed supply that no one can change,” the article points out. But it’ll be a long time before the price of bitcoin actually feels any effect:
The next network-level event likely to impact price is the next time the block reward drops in half, which will happen in a little over two years…. The 18 millionth bitcoin was mined in 2019, but the 21 millionth won’t be mined until roughly 2140, provided the network sticks to the plan. That’s because every four years the emission schedule drops in half.
