Bitcoin calculation questions appear in the Dutch college entrance examination. Should students start mining from the very beginning?

Recently, math questions about Bitcoin appeared in the Dutch college entrance examination papers, with five questions related to Bitcoin. It is estimated that about 200,000 Dutch students took the exam this year.

According to the test paper circulated on the American social news forum Reddit, the following is a rough translation:

Bitcoin is a digital currency that exists only on the Internet. It was created on January 1, 2009. Bitcoin is one of the payment methods that can be used to buy goods or services in online stores and other online merchants. Bitcoin is different from ordinary currencies. It is not issued by a central bank. All existing Bitcoins are generated by solving specific mathematical problems through computer computing power. It works like this: everyone can participate in the calculation of a specific mathematical problem by running specific software on his or her computer. After the calculation is completed, the computer owner will receive 25 (newly mined) Bitcoins as a reward. Because in 2014, a mathematical problem was solved every 10 minutes, 25 new Bitcoins were generated every 10 minutes. As of January 1, there are about 12.2 million Bitcoins in the world.

Based on the above, please answer the following questions:

1. Based on the above, in which year will the number of mined bitcoins exceed 18 million?

2. From which year will the reward for computing be less than one Bitcoin?

In addition, the addition calculation problem is listed according to the formula to solve the above problem. (The total number of bitcoins that can be mined will not exceed 21 million)

As public institutions in the Netherlands become more accepting of cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrencies are also appearing on students' examination papers.

In March of this year, the Amsterdam Court ruled in a civil case that Bitcoin showed all the characteristics of "property rights" and concluded that Bitcoin represents a value and can be transferred.

By Samuel Haig

Compiled by: Melody