Reward Era

A reward era (also called "epoch" by some analysts) is each ~4-year period between halvings during which the block subsidy stays at a fixed value. The full schedule is locked in by protocol math: 210,000 blocks per era, subsidy halving at each transition.

The complete schedule:

Era	Block range	Year (approx)	Subsidy	Notes
1	0 - 209,999	2009-2012	50 BTC	Genesis era; CPU mining era
2	210,000 - 419,999	2012-2016	25 BTC	First halving Nov 2012; GPU and early ASIC era
3	420,000 - 629,999	2016-2020	12.5 BTC	Industrial ASIC era; SegWit activates 2017
4	630,000 - 839,999	2020-2024	6.25 BTC	Taproot activates 2021; halvening April 2024
5	840,000 - 1,049,999	2024-2028	3.125 BTC	Current era
6	1,050,000 - 1,259,999	2028-2032	1.5625 BTC
7	1,260,000 - 1,469,999	2032-2036	0.78125 BTC
...	...	...	...	...
33	block ~6,930,000	~2140	0	Subsidy rounds to zero satoshis

Each transition is mechanically simple: at the start of the era, every node automatically applies the new subsidy. There's no vote, no announcement, no human in the loop. The protocol just enforces the halved value.

Cultural and market features around halvings:

• Halving cycles have historically been associated with bull-market price runs in the 12-18 months following each halving, attributed to the supply-issuance reduction. The pattern has held through 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024 cycles but the causal model is debated.
• Miner capitulation events often follow halvings: marginal miners with high electricity costs become unprofitable overnight and shut down, reducing hash rate temporarily.
• Difficulty adjustment rebalances hash rate over the following weeks to restore the 10-minute block target.

Reward era is the structural unit Bitcoin's monetary policy plans in. The protocol's commitment isn't to a fixed annual inflation rate; it's to a known sequence of eras with halving transitions until the asymptote is reached.