Block Reward
Web3 / mining staking
The total compensation awarded to miners (in PoW) or validators (in PoS) for successfully producing a new block, consisting of newly minted cryptocurrency (the subsidy) plus transaction fees from all transactions included in the block. In Bitcoin, the block subsidy started at 50 BTC per block in 2009 and halves every 210,000 blocks (approximately every four years)—having reached 3.125 BTC after the April 2024 halving, and scheduled to reach 1.5625 BTC around 2028. As the block subsidy approaches zero (around 2140), Bitcoin's security model relies increasingly on transaction fees replacing subsidy as the primary miner incentive. In Ethereum's PoS system, validators receive a combination of newly issued ETH and priority fees, while the base fee is burned (EIP-1559), making ETH potentially deflationary during high-activity periods. Example: Bitcoin's April 2024 halving reduced the block reward from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC per block, simultaneously reducing the daily new supply by approximately 450 BTC (~$30M at the time) and historically preceding major bull market cycles as supply reduction meets sustained demand. Why it matters for Web3: The block reward is the primary issuance mechanism for PoW cryptocurrencies and directly drives miner economics, security budgets, and the inflation/deflation dynamics of native tokens. Halving events are among the most anticipated recurring events in crypto market cycles.
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