I just noticed something that sounds almost surreal when you think about it: Bitcoin is already approaching 20 million units in circulation. We’re talking about 20 million BTC mined so far, with only 1 million remaining to reach the 21 million cap that Satoshi programmed.

But here’s where it gets interesting. That last million to be mined? It will take approximately 114 more years. Yes, you read that right: over a century. All because of the halving, that mechanism that reduces the reward every four years. It’s as if the network becomes exponentially more efficient at extracting Bitcoin over time, but there’s less and less economic incentive to mine.

Think of it this way: in the early years, when Satoshi launched Bitcoin, 50 BTC were mined per block. Now we’re at 3.125 BTC per block after the last halving. The next reduction will bring that down to 1.5625 BTC. Eventually, mining a block will barely leave crumbs, but the network will keep functioning because transactions will still need validation.

What’s fascinating is that this demonstrates Bitcoin’s brilliant design: programmed scarcity, not arbitrary. While the world prints fiat money without control, Bitcoin follows its predetermined schedule. That’s what many forget when they talk about Bitcoin as a store of value.

It’s a reminder of why some of us are still obsessed with this. It’s not just speculation; it’s an almost 17-year experiment that continues to work exactly as planned.