This is one of the greatest misunderstandings in Bitcoin.
Block subsidies getting cut in half every four years does NOT mean that there are "lower block rewards."
Nominally, yes, the rewards are halved every four years. But value-wise, which is the critical factor, the rewards increase over time.
For example:
50 BTC was mined every Bitcoin block until November 28, 2012.
When that last 50-BTC block was mined, the market value of 50 BTC was $619.
On November 28th, the Bitcoin subsidy halved from 50 BTC to 25 BTC.
That's less, right? The incentive is lower, right? That's a security problem, right?
Watch.
25 BTC was mined every block from November 28, 2012 to July 9, 2016.
When that last 25-BTC block was mined, the market value of 25 BTC was $16,274.
50 BTC in 2012: $619
25 BTC in 2016: $16,274
The value of the "lower" block reward in 2016 was greater than the "higher" block reward in 2012.
The same pattern has repeated every Bitcoin halving cycle:
50 BTC in 2012: $619
25 BTC in 2016: $16,274
12.5 BTC in 2020: $107,522
6.25 BTC in 2024: $406,215
Stop looking at nominal value. Focus on market value.
There is no incentive problem. There is no security problem.
Do not let fiat institutions tell you otherwise.
BlackRock flagged Bitcoin miners as a risk factor in IBIT's 10-K.
The filing says lower block rewards "could result in less of an incentive for miners," which puts network security in question.
Every halving cuts the subsidy that pays for Bitcoin's security. The operators still running afterward are the ones whose power costs work at the smaller reward, so hashrate ends up wherever energy is cheap and reliable.
An IBIT share tracks the price of Bitcoin and adds nothing to the hashrate protecting it. A hosted miner adds hashrate and sends the Bitcoin it produces to a wallet its owner controls.
We run 4+ EH/s across 9 owned Iowa sites at 95%+ uptime, on power rates we locked in before the last halving.
BlackRock's lawyers are asking who keeps hashing when the reward shrinks again.
We've planned the business around that question since 2021.