Bitcoin is a ledger with about 19.9 million entries and a strict rule: there will only ever be 21 million bitcoin. Every ten minutes or so, a new page of transactions — a block — is added to the ledger by computers called miners, who compete to do it and are paid in new bitcoin for winning.
That competition is deliberately expensive. To rewrite yesterday's page, you would have to redo all the work since — which is why nobody has managed it in fifteen years.
The supply schedule is fixed in the software: the mining reward halves roughly every four years (the halving — next expected in 2028), which is how the 21 million cap is enforced. No board meeting can change it, which is precisely the point.
🎯 Key takeaways
- A block of transactions is added ~every 10 minutes by miners
- Rewriting history would cost more than it could ever pay
- Supply is capped at 21M by software, not by promises
Educational content only, not financial advice.