Bitcoin Users Spend IDR 38.9 Billion For The Fourth Half Block

JAKARTA - Bitcoin users have spent an amazing amount of 37.7 Bitcoin (BTC) worth more than 2.4 million US dollars (Rp 38.9 billion) at current prices, in the cost of getting their share of limited space on the fourth Bitcoin halving block.

At 12:09 UTC on April 20, Bitcoin ViaBTC miners produced the 824,000th block, triggering an automated protocol that cuts miners' rewards by 50% from 6,25 BTC to 3,125 BTC per block.

Blok 880,000 quickly became the most searched digital part in Bitcoin history with users issuing a total of 37.67 BTC at a cost, according to data from the Bitcoin block explorer pooling.space.

Including a miner subsidy of 3,125 BTC, a total of 40.7 BTC worth US$2.6 million (IDR 42.1 billion) was paid to Bitcoin ViaBTC miners to produce a halving block.

The record-scoring fee is attributed to users competing to carve and plant rare satoshis in the halling block where most of the activity stems from the craze for activity at the Runes Protocol owned by Bitcoin Ordinary maker Casey Rodmarmor, which was just launched at the same time as Halving.

Runes has been marketed as a more efficient way to create new tokens on the Bitcoin network compared to the standard BRC-20 token method based on Ordinarys to create Bitcoin-based tokens.

Like BRC-20s, Runes takes advantage of the Bitcoin network and pays a fee in Bitcoin to create new tokens. However, the similarities end there. The main difference between Runes and BRC-20s is that Runes uses the Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) model to "create" new tokens in Bitcoin. This is different from the "inscription" account model used by Ordinarys, according to a protocol explanation from Rodarmor.

A total of 3.82 million US dollars (Rp 61.9 billion) in costs excluding miner subsidies is spent on five blocks after halving, according to data collected from the mempool.space.

Beyond the battle for one of the first Runes, the Bitcoin mining pool is also racing to get what is known as the "epik" satoshi. Satoshi epic is the first satoshi of the smallest Bitcoin denomination mined on the haaving block.

In the midst of the chaos, a trader named Hesaka posted a meme describing many broader sentiments towards the halling event briefly celebrating it followed by returning to business routines as usual.

Bitcoin's famous critic Peter Schiff also took the opportunity to throw some satire at Bitcoin holders on X.

"I think halling is the right name for what's going on as Bitcoin holders will see half of their net value drop soon," Schiff said.