# Halvenfall

> Halvenfall is an endless dark-fantasy chronicle written from the Bitcoin blockchain. Every block, about every ten minutes, becomes a chapter. The world is lit by a dying sun, the Lantern, whose gift halves every four years, as Bitcoin's block subsidy does, until it goes out around 2140.

Now: link 975,084, "Bellows Song at Cinder Brow", in the Fifth Age. The Lantern's gift is ₿312,500,000 a link, and the light halves again in 74,916 links. Over the last 144 links the world was 0.6% self-lit (fees as a share of the miners' reward).

Amounts follow BIP 177: ₿1 is the smallest unit (what used to be called a sat), so ₿21 means 21 of them.

## How the chain becomes the story

- A block: a link of the Chain, and its chapter
- A mining pool: a House that catches the light
- A solo miner: a lone lamplighter, almost a miracle
- The block subsidy: the Lantern's gift
- Fees: oil, which travellers pay for passage
- A vbyte, and fee rates per vbyte: a span, the room a traveller takes aboard; passage costs so much a span
- The mempool: the Throng waiting at the gate
- Difficulty: the Veil, which thickens as more lamps burn
- A halving: a Halvenfall, when the light halves and an Age ends
- 144 blocks, about a day: a Book, which closes with its own tale
- Fees as a share of the miner's reward: how self-lit the world is
- The subsidy reaching zero, around 2140: the Last Dark

A chapter is written once its block has one confirmation. Quiet blocks get a short vignette; unusual ones (fee spikes, long waits, lone miners, difficulty changes) get longer scenes. Every 144 links a Book closes with its own tale. Readers can light a candle on a chapter over Lightning, ₿21 or any amount above; each chapter shows its count.

## Read

- [The newest chapter](https://halvenfall.com/block/975084.md): Markdown
- [How it works](https://halvenfall.com/how): the world and its rules in plain words
- [The story so far](https://halvenfall.com/story): what has happened, open threads, who's who, how the Houses stand
- [The prologue](https://halvenfall.com/prologue): the Elder Ages, before the first link
- [Everything in one file](https://halvenfall.com/llms-full.txt): the world, the last Book's tale and the latest chapters
- [The Book being written](https://halvenfall.com/book/5-939): its numbers and links so far
- [Books as RSS](https://halvenfall.com/books.xml): closed Books with their tales, one a day

## Latest chapters

- [Bellows Song at Cinder Brow](https://halvenfall.com/block/975084.md): link 975,084, caught by House Fishpond
- [Petra Writes From Copperhythe](https://halvenfall.com/block/975083.md): link 975,083, caught by House Foundry
- [Through at Brindle Ford](https://halvenfall.com/block/975082.md): link 975,082, caught by the Tide House
- [Morwen Tallis Takes a Grey Cloak](https://halvenfall.com/block/975081.md): link 975,081, caught by House Foundry
- [Dury Hangs His Coat Back Up](https://halvenfall.com/block/975080.md): link 975,080, caught by House Fishpond
- [Hilde Mawson Strikes a Column](https://halvenfall.com/block/975079.md): link 975,079, caught by House Spider
- [Aldous Pays for the Glass](https://halvenfall.com/block/975078.md): link 975,078, caught by the Sun-House of Luxor
- [Wren Hollins Asks Whose Light](https://halvenfall.com/block/975077.md): link 975,077, caught by House Via
- [Quenby Hask Buys a Cloak](https://halvenfall.com/block/975076.md): link 975,076, caught by House Spider
- [Wind Takes Half the Words](https://halvenfall.com/block/975075.md): link 975,075, caught by House Fishpond
- [The Board Has No Mouth](https://halvenfall.com/block/975074.md): link 975,074, caught by House Mara
- [A Tally Notched to the Knuckle](https://halvenfall.com/block/975073.md): link 975,073, caught by House Foundry

## Data

- [Live pulse](https://halvenfall.com/api/pulse): JSON with the newest chapter, the newest block, the mempool and the fee rate for the next block
- Any chapter as Markdown: https://halvenfall.com/block/{height}.md
- Any chapter's page: https://halvenfall.com/block/{height}

## Optional

- [OrkLabs](https://orklabs.com): who makes Halvenfall