On April 26, 2018, on the Bitcoin network at block 519,996, the BTC.com mining pool mined the 17 millionth coin. Miners only have 1/5 of the limited supply of coins left.
The mining of the 17 millionth Bitcoin is a psychological milestone for the world's most popular cryptocurrency, because under current rules the total number of Bitcoins is limited to 21 million and today 81% of all Bitcoins have been issued, and less than 4 million remain until the last coin.
However, Bitcoin is designed to exist for a very long time, so even when all 21 million BTC are mined, the network will not stop. It is assumed that at that moment miners will receive the main benefit from the commissions they are already collecting.
It is theoretically possible to change the planned number of bitcoins if absolutely all network users support this decision (currently such a scenario is incredible) and agree to change the network code. This property, supported by technology, played a key role in shaping the perception of Bitcoin as a means of payment, a scarce resource and an integral part of the crypto-economy.
As you know, Satoshi Nakamoto created the first block on the network on January 3, 2009a, for which I received 50 BTC. This reward for issuing blocks remained for another 209,999 blocks, and then the first split, or division of the reward, occurred.
The miner's reward decreases every 210,000 blocks, which was originally included in the cryptocurrency code. The last time such a division took place was in June 2016 and since then the reward has been 12.5 BTC. It took 9 years to mine 17 million bitcoins. The release of the remaining 4 million will take much longer - due to constant divisions, the growth rate of the cryptocurrency mass will slow down significantly.
What is most interesting is that technically the value of 21 million BTC is unattainable. Due to the fact that for unknown reasons, on May 17, 2011, a miner named midnightmagic received a reward of 49.99999999 BTC instead of the 50 BTC due to him. Thus, up to 21 million BTC there will always be only 1 satoshi missing.
The appearance of the 17 millionth Bitcoin is another reminder of what a difficult path Bitcoin has traveled and how much remains to be done.
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