Subsidy schedule

The block subsidy — brand-new bitcoin a miner may pay itself in the coinbase transaction — started at 50 BTC per block in January 2009 and is cut in half every 210,000 blocks. At a ~10-minute average block interval, 210,000 blocks take roughly four years, so halvings land approximately every four years (the exact date depends on realized block times, not the calendar). The sequence: 50 → 25 → 12.5 → 6.25 → 3.125 → 1.5625 → … until the subsidy truncates to zero.

Nuance: Miner revenue per block is subsidy plus transaction fees. Only the subsidy halves; fees are set by the market for block space and do not follow any schedule.

Common misstatements:

• "The halving happens every four years." — It happens every 210,000 blocks; four years is the approximation, and actual dates have drifted (November 2012, July 2016, May 2020, April 2024).
• "Mining rewards go to zero at the next halving." — The subsidy declines geometrically over ~32 more halvings; it does not stop abruptly.
• "The halving halves miners' income." — It halves the subsidy component only; fee income is unaffected by the schedule.