It's a commodity capped at 21 million official units and 100 million 'satoshis' (exchangeable units) per each BTC. In that sense it's a cryptographic accounting ledger, so that's a total of 2,100,000,000,000,000 units of exchange. So far 19624587 are in circulating supply and the reward for mining Bitcoin (solving cryptographic puzzles to earn the privilege of adding the next block - known as 'Proof of Work') will cut in half every four years until 2140. The idea is that it's independent of any government, any company, has it's own founding myth (Satoshi Nakamoto - mythic / pseudonymous founder), and thus forces different countries around the world to reckon with a commodity less inflationary than gold as a reality for investors to put their money into if their local currency isn't working out.
The SEC just approved 11 of 14 ETFs (exchange-traded funds) for Bitcoin back in January which included Blackrock, Fidelity, Ark, and Grayscale. This is where there's a bit of a shakeup right now - ie. people trying to predict how much the price will go up in 2024 all the while considering that the next 'halving' of mining rewards is in early April of 2024 which typically coincides with a crypto bull-run roughly 12 to 18 months after the halving (although there seem to be macro liquidity cycles behind it the fluctuations so it's hard to say whether it will stay on it's typical course with this much increased institutional demand).
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“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” - James Baldwin
02 Jul 2023, 6:35 pm
