What is the "Bitcoin Halving"?

If you have never been much interested in mining, you probably don't know what bitcoin halvin is and when bitcoin halves.
Luckily it's not very complicated: every four years (it's a bit different, but let's keep it simple), the amount of BTC "generated" with each block halves. This year will be the third halving, following 2012 and 2016 halvings.

The initial "production" was 50 BTC per block, in 2012 the production dropped to 25, then in 2016 it dropped again to 12.5 and this year's halving will set it at 6.25

How will the halving affect us?

For obvious reasons, miners will be the first people to notice the effects of the halving: initially they will experience a very deep drop in revenues, as they will get half the reward for the same price as always; all of the other users will very slowly notice it too, as the increase of coin in the market will drop too. 
As you can see on the image below, the last halvings had very similar patterns in the way they affected the market, but different amounts of time between the phases.

What about ASIC manufcturers?

So, now that you know the basic things about what Bitcoin Halving is, we can start talking about the news.

Everyone knows Bitmain, the most famous manufacturer of ASIC equipment: the Antminers. Bitmain has been the first company to introduce post-halving equipment at the end of February; let's see their specifications more in detail:

The new ASIC, named Antminer S19 Pro, features a hashrate of 110TH/s with a power consumption of 29.5J/TH and is sold for $2,633. Compared to the older S19, it generates 15 more TH/s with 5 less J/TH, selling for $669 more. Even if the price is 25.4% higher than the old one, the investment will reveal successful on the long run, due to the more hashpower at a lower consuption.
Knowing that most mining farms are located in places where power is very cheap, the difference in power consuption might not determine a great advantage, but when all of the old ASICs will be replaced, the grand total of the savings might be considerable, on top of that, the hashrate is 13.6% higher!

Did you know MicroBT? What if I say Whatsminer? They introduced their new M30 series: the MS30S++ and the M30S+ just some days ago.
Let's talk a little about the background story: MicroBT is a relatively new company, founded in 2017 by a former Bitmain employee that is said to have been the lead director behind many Antminer products.

Let's now talk about their new ASICs, starting from the flagship model, the MS30S++: it features a slightly higher hashrate (112 TH/s) than the competitor's S19 Pro, with a higher power consuption (31J/TH) and the price tag reports $3,900.
The MS30S+ features 100TH/s consuming 34J/TH and selling for $2,800.
The first miners are estimated to ship during the month of June, but we should definitely expect heavy delays due to the pandemic