What term to use? Halving or Halvening? Term history

[dzungmobile]

This discussion pops up in my brain when I joined this discussion

Nowadays, if I am not wrong, in cryptocurrency communities, people are more favorite to use the term halving than halvening. However, I know both terms have been using many years. It is not about what is right, what is wrong. Technical terms are created by human and we can change it.

Today, in this topic, let's dig into the past, to explore history of these terms: halving and halvening.

I present here based on my Search results with the Bitcointalk search tool. I was not in Bitcointalk in 2011 or earlier so my information can be inaccurate so if you find such inaccuracy, please correct it. I much appreciate your help.

Halving
The term 'halving' is used in 2011, on 2nd July.

you send N coins to me
I send N/2 back to you.

simple as that.
no catches, no strings attached.
you know upfront how much you'll loose
and I promise to keep having a good life.

if it goes well, I will change the ration keep/return
from 1:1 maybe up to 5:95
but you'll always loose your bitcoins
in this schema.
at least I'm honest and do not promise doubling or so.

When I search with 'halve', it was used one month earlier than 'halving', on 5th June 2011.

How do you incorporate this into your business model?

I jsut figured out it will be quite disrubpive - cashflows will at least half overnight.

Note this is not against the concept oflowering payouts, but halving it every 210.000 blocks means that between quite some time you have a VERY big change. It may have been better to put the change smaller into smaller increments that follow the same curve (for example 90% every x blocks - forgive me, not in the mood to try that out mathematically now).

This way miners get a hugh hit in bitcoins generated, and with a more stable value in cashflows. Running this as a business means it does not look good on balance sheet

Halvening
The 'halvening' term in Bitcointalk is used about one year later, in 2012.

On the other hand, lower prices are increasing the yield: at current price YABMC is paying >3% weekly.
At that rate, getting back the whole capital invested as dividends in a few months, before the halvening, while ASICS are still a pie in the sky, does not seems so unlikely to me.

Some articles about those terms but they don't have information about those term origins.

• Terminology. The oldest topic in Bitcointalk about terminology only lists 'halving'
• Coinbase article
• Halving (Coinmarketcap Glossary)
• Bitcoin Halving (Investopedia)
• Bitcoin Glossary of Terms (Bitcoinmagazine)
• What is the halvening

[Despairo]

I think halving is fit better than halvening because the Bitcoin block reward is divided every 4 years and the another divided part is disappeared. If the divided part isn't disappeared, then we can call it halve IMO.

But I'd like to see a better term than halving because halving is too general. It's like holding, but in cryptocurrency we're use hodling term.

[philipma1957]

I prefer ½ ing. I have used it for years. Not sure if I started it or read it.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1222772.msg12804738#msg12804738

found me in 2015

but someone else did it in 2015.

not sure if I was first.

[Bitstar_coin]

As long as they arrived at the same meaning what difference does it make? For the longest time people have used the halving word and everyone understood it's meaning. Just like hodl and hold even though the former was as a result of a typo but it represent the message at that time and all crypto community get it.

[mk4]

Halving = the more 'formal' term
Halvening = the memefied version

That's pretty much it. Obviously I prefer the latter because of the internet's meme-ish culture.

[Poker Player]

As long as they arrived at the same meaning what difference does it make?

None. They are two words that mean the same thing.

Halving = the more 'formal' term
Halvening = the memefied version

That's pretty much it. Obviously I prefer the latter because of the internet's meme-ish culture.

Good point. I had always used "halving" and didn't know it was the more formal version, although the meaning is the same.

[mk4]

Good point. I had always used "halving" and didn't know it was the more formal version, although the meaning is the same.

It's just the more 'formal' version simply because "halving" is an actual dictionary word while "halvening" is obviously not lol. Totally unrelated to whitepaper/blockchain terminology.

[Poker Player]

It's just the more 'formal' version simply because "halving" is an actual dictionary word while "halvening" is obviously not lol. Totally unrelated to whitepaper/blockchain terminology.

I wouldn't be surprised if that term was used for the first time by a non-native English speaker.

I have seen that there is also another proposal in this regard btw:

many have said we should call it the Halfining in honour of Hal Finney,

[Sim_card]

From my understanding these two words has the same meaning but different spelling and terminology. Someone who isn't into the blockchain network will understand halving instantly and what it means. But halvening as said by mk4 is meme-ish and is the right word. As long as we understand what any of these word is,am cool with them.

[Cricktor]

I'm no native English speaker and I prefer Halving over the other term which looks to me like some artificial word. And I like "hodling" or "to hodl" for its very particular meaning in the community. Halving might be slightly incorrect for the picky language purists, but I don't care (halving in the sense of creating two halfs of something while Bitcoin's halving cuts off half of block subsidy into nothing).

[tabas]

Actually, there's another one that I've read that describes what shall happen next year and that's, "halfing".
Honestly, all of them works and have the same meaning so whatever you prefer, we're all agreeing of what's being describe. Whether it is halving, halvening or even halfing. It's understandable of what a person is talking about. Formal, informal and maybe soon there will be another term that will be built up having the same meaning, who knows. 
We're all free to use any of those terms.

[Beparanf]

Actually, there's another one that I've read that describes what shall happen next year and that's, "halfing".
Honestly, all of them works and have the same meaning so whatever you prefer, we're all agreeing of what's being describe. Whether it is halving, halvening or even halfing. It's understandable of what a person is talking about.

Agreed, There’s no right term to use since we are free to use any term as long as it describes same thought which others can understand. This is same with hodling and other slang term on crypto. I think most important thing is that we understand what’s gonna happened after halving/halvening/halfing/halfckening.

But Halving is the most popular term to use here since I experience 2 halving during 2016 and 2020. Halvening is just use on the social media lately.

[Zaguru12]

I'm no native English speaker and I prefer Halving over the other term which looks to me like some artificial word. And I like "hodling" or "to hodl" for its very particular meaning in the community. Halving might be slightly incorrect for the picky language purists, but I don't care (halving in the sense of creating two halfs of something while Bitcoin's halving cuts off half of block subsidy into nothing).

Yeah Halving is the most recognized one according to Oxford Dictionary and also correct since it states that it is a direct reduction by half which is the idea behind the bitcoin halving. But the other one also is correct because it can be used in some old English sentences according to Middle English compendium, it means dividing into two, which is the same.But then just like how the whole hodling came about it is even suggested to call it Halfing in respect to Hal Fin.

[Bananington]

The two word may mean the same thing, but they belong to two different parts of speech, one is a verb, and the other one a noun, and that is what will determine if their usage is correct or not.

For  Halve and Half,
The correct one to use is bitcoin Halving/Halvening, because it is an action (Verb) that we are all expecting to happen. It is after Bitcoin has been Halved, that the term Bitcoin Halfing (noun) can then be used, which will refer to what is left after the action of Halving/Halvening.

[hatshepsut93]

I like the word "halvening", because it's funny and it's a meme, and memes make people curious, they make people want to belong. These days its hard to imagine an online community without its own unique memes and jargon. So I don't think we should shy from words like hodl and halvening, we should embrace them.

[BIT-BENDER]

There are things called terminology, sometimes they do not fall in same connection with the English words or mean the same thing someone who isn't in that field understand as. We can see terminology in coding, military services and of course in Crypto-currency, that's why as a newbie your understanding about crypto terminology is very important as not to be lost.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=126798.msg1346100#msg1346100

Here is a helpful post on terminology.

[usekevin]

Based on the halving,we can expect to get good value for the bitcoin in 2024.Many of my friends holding their bitcoin since 2021 for the 2024 halving.If the prediction is successful,they will earn some good money from the bitcoin and their life will be get settled.Every person ultimate aim will be earn more money before the old age and enjoy some part of their life.But only few was willing to work for it and taking huge risk for the things.The crypto currency had give a lot profit to their holding people all the time.

[darkangel11]

In proper English it should be halving. Words like halvening or hodling are just fun jokes that became a part of the bitcoin lore, if we can call it that.
There's so many investment meme words, like stonks, or corn (bitcorn), shitcoin, nocoiner and so on. They all have their uses, and it's up to you when and how you will use them.
For example, this fun lingo will work here or when you're having a beer with friends, but when summoned to court or a congressional hearing, you won't say: noobs dumped all their cornz before the halvening, but I'm an OG hodler, I'm stacking.

[panganib999]

I prefer ½ ing. I have used it for years. Not sure if I started it or read it.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1222772.msg12804738#msg12804738

found me in 2015

but someone else did it in 2015.

not sure if I was first.

Lol what a way to get around this terminology debacle, if only I knew the key blaze for that I would've used it too instead of the halving.

In all seriousness though I don't think it should be halvening. It's not even a real word for crying out loud and that alone is a strong argument about its invalidity. Plus Halving has a nice ring to it and it rolls off the tongue easier than halvening with its three stupid syllables lol.

Based on the halving,we can expect to get good value for the bitcoin in 2024.Many of my friends holding their bitcoin since 2021 for the 2024 halving.If the prediction is successful,they will earn some good money from the bitcoin and their life will be get settled.Every person ultimate aim will be earn more money before the old age and enjoy some part of their life.But only few was willing to work for it and taking huge risk for the things.The crypto currency had give a lot profit to their holding people all the time.

I don't know if you're shitposting or what but you should've read from the title alone that we're not talking about the halving here, but what proper terminology should be used for the halving. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that, does it?

[tabas]

Actually, there's another one that I've read that describes what shall happen next year and that's, "halfing".
Honestly, all of them works and have the same meaning so whatever you prefer, we're all agreeing of what's being describe. Whether it is halving, halvening or even halfing. It's understandable of what a person is talking about.

Agreed, There’s no right term to use since we are free to use any term as long as it describes same thought which others can understand. This is same with hodling and other slang term on crypto. I think most important thing is that we understand what’s gonna happened after halving/halvening/halfing/halfckening.

But Halving is the most popular term to use here since I experience 2 halving during 2016 and 2020. Halvening is just use on the social media lately.

Yep, everyone settles with the term halving as it's easier to say and just two syllables.

~snip

It's just all about the terminology mate and not about what's gonna be the effect of halving and how much everyone can make from it. Everyone knows what's the effect of it and why we should buy Bitcoin but the topic and this thread is just plainly all about the terms that might have not been known to others that there are also other terms being used.