How is the number of ETH per block determined? My initial impression was that ETH blocks produce 5 ETH per 15 seconds but I cannot find any exact numbers or methodology regarding the emission schedule.
This blog post from 2014 says 18,000,000 ETH will be produced per year, given there are 31,557,600 seconds in a year, that leaves us at 1.7532 ETH per second. Given ETH blocks are 15 seconds, that equates to 8.5616 ETH per block.
However, according to bitinfocharts.com, the reward per ETH block is a bit more complicated.
It seems that the total reward per block is split up in the following way:
- Static reward (currently 3 ETH)
- Transaction fees
- Uncle inclusion
- Uncle rewards
In which of these 4 points are new coins generated and how is that generation determined?
Why is the static reward 3 ETH (totaling ~6.3 million new ETH per year) when the original blog post and most information I'm finding on ETH claims 18 million new ETH generated per year? Is there a block halving event or some similar schedule for reducing the static reward?