Bitcoin Halving

Lyrics

There is no altar.
There is no priest.
Only the protocol.
A clock that measures time in proofs of work.
Satoshi's ghost wrote the scripture in C++.
And the network keeps the faith.
In the beginning, the reward was generous.
Fifty coins pulled from the void for every block solved.
A digital gold rush in the genesis block.
But the scripture contained a prophecy.
A covenant of scarcity.
Not tied to a season, or the turning of the moon.
But to a number.
Two hundred and ten thousand.
A holy day, written in the code.
Every four years, the issuance is halved.
The rite is the code, the code is the rite.
The difficulty adjusts. The miners recalculate.
The network doesn't ask why.
It simply executes the command.
A quiet, global, computational ceremony.
The halving.
November twenty-eighth, two thousand and twelve.
Block two hundred and ten thousand arrives.
Fifty becomes twenty-five.
The world barely noticed.
July ninth, two thousand and sixteen.
Block four hundred and twenty thousand.
Twenty-five becomes twelve point five.
The faithful watch their screens.
The new calendar turns a page.
Every four years, the issuance is halved.
The rite is the code, the code is the rite.
The difficulty adjusts. The miners recalculate.
The network doesn't ask why.
It simply executes the command.
A quiet, global, computational ceremony.
The halving.
Thirty-two ceremonies in total.
That is the promise.
Until the year twenty-one forty, approximately.
When the block reward will fall to zero.
And the last satoshi is mined.
Then, only the fees remain.
The tithes of the transaction.
Satoshi’s long winter.
A system designed to outlive its creator.
May eleventh, twenty twenty.
April nineteenth, twenty twenty-four.
Six point two five becomes three point one two five.
The numbers get smaller.
The faith gets harder.
The rite is observed.
The next block arrives.
And the clock resets.
Counting down.
To the next halving.