Of Bitcoin With the fourth-year halving cycle finally complete, many users are aggressively competing for halving blocks, paying exorbitant amounts to mine a single block.
Bitcoin Mining Pool Pays Over $2.4 Million in Block Fees
Earlier today, the 840,000th block was added to the Bitcoin blockchain, which triggers the onslaught of the long-awaited halving event. Although the price of BTC did not change dramatically after the halving, transaction costs rose to unprecedented levels.
Amid the massive competition, a mining pool identified as ViaBTC had successfully mined the 840,000th Bitcoin block. Cumulatively, BTC users had spent a whopping $37.7 BTC in mining fees, equivalent to $2.4 million, which is the highest fee ever paid for a Bitcoin block.
According to reports from mempool, after ViaBTC produced the 840,000th block, the protocol had an automated reduction in pay for miners by half, from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block. In addition to the fees, ViaBTC had received a total payout of 40.7 BTC, worth approximately $2.6 million, for mining the historic block.
While it may seem that way Bitcoin miners had thrown caution to the wind by spending over $2.4 million on a single block, the 840,000th block having major significance within the cryptocurrency space. The historical Bitcoin block These are said to contain the first Satoshis, ‘sats’, the smallest units of BTC after the halving.
There are several of these ‘epic sats’, which appear after the halving event and are coveted among cryptocurrency enthusiasts as a rare collectible. Some even speculate that this is the case Bitcoin fragments could potentially be worth millions of dollars.
Including the hype surrounding this fragmented BTC, much of the competition for Bitcoin blocks post-halving is attributed to the new Runic Protocol which was launched at the same time as Bitcoin’s halving.
Degens races to secure infamous rune tokens
The Runes Protocol, created by Casey Rodamor, a Bitcoin developer, has sent shockwaves through the cryptocurrency community as swords eagerly compete to etch and mint tokens directly on the Bitcoin network.
While mining pools were mining new Bitcoin blocks, Degens had paid out more than 78.6 BTC worth $4.95 million to coin the rarest Runes. This exponential increase in fees has been an unprecedented event, highlighting the increased adoption and participation of the Bitcoin network.
According to reports from Ord.io, a Rune labeled ‘Decentralized’ was obtained for a fee of 7.99 BTC, equivalent to $510,760. While another titled ‘Dog-Go-To-The-Moon’ was obtained for a fee of 6.73 BTC, worth approximately $429,831.
Leonidas, protocol developer and host of the groundbreaking Ordinalsa system for numbering ‘epic sats’ declared the Runes Protocol a notable success because swords “single-handedly offset the decline in miner rewards due to the halving.” He concluded that Runes had a significant impact The security of Bitcoin budget, which could potentially play an important role in ensuring the sustainability of the network.
BTC price sitting at $63,700 after halving | Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview.com
Featured image from Watcher Guru, chart from Tradingview.com
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