Bitcoin world faces ‘halving’: what’s happening?

Bitcoin miners, whose computer processors enable the running of the world’s most popular virtual currency, will soon face an event that takes place every four years and alters the profitability of the hi-tech industry.

So-called halving is when cryptocurrency-mining companies and individuals find out the reduced payment that they will receive in return for their contribution to the system’s smooth operation.

Bitcoin was created in 2008 by a person or group writing under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto as a peer-to-peer decentralised electronic cash system.

The virtual unit was once the preserve of internet geeks and hobbyists but it has since exploded in popularity, with mining performed by huge banks of computers.