Bitcoin Forum

If BTC really dominates our world, will 2.4  quadrillion satoshis be enough for the blockchain functionality to run other applications ?   What will happen when limit approaches?

satoshi is the available small unit[1], currently what we are having in bitcoin system. If there will a demand to have further smallest unit, one satoshi will be split to meet that requirement.

Basically, bitcoin is infinitely divisible to meet any requirement.

[1] please note, NOT possible small unit.

the maximum amount of bitcoin that will exist eventually will be 21 million bitcoin which you can multiply by 10^8 to get the satoshi equivalent which you can never get 2.4 !!
so we will have 2.1*10^14

2.4 quadrillion is 2.4 * 10^15 or 2.4 * 10^24 (depending on what scale you are using) none of which is true here.

Bitcoin isn't the only game in town, there are many other networks to be used with similar or higher functionality than bitcoin, depending on your needs.

Let's just call it a draw. 21 million BTC is is 2.1x10¹⁵ satoshis, not 2.4x10¹⁵ or 2.1x10¹⁴

Nothing is ever enough for people who are greedy. Do u not see so many other alt coin with much potential. People need to stop fixiated on bitcoin.. i feel its high time now

Probably.  If not, then either the program will be changed to allow smaller increments (nano-bitcoins? pico-bitcoins?), or services will be created for off-chain transactions.  (I'm not sure, but I think that the new side-chain concept that SegWit makes possible might also be a solution?)


What limit?

According to a three year old research paper of Swiss bank Credit Suisse (http://www.cnbc.com/2013/10/11/global-wealth-hit-241-trillion-but-distribution-skewed.html), the world's wealth is 241 trillion $ in total. It includes everything.
Therefore the Satoshis are by far sufficient.

If it would ever become problematic, solutions would easily be implemented. You can think of stuff like:

Adding an additional 0, giving 10 times more satoshis
Using an altcoin to do the micro transactions

And probably a lot more. Just because it is currently a hard limit, it does not mean it will stay like that if the need changes.

Block size shouldn't also be an issue because it's easy to change but it got bitcoin development hijacked and major developers pushed away, the number of decimal places may be a major problem in the future.

Thank you all. You have given me plenty to think about. Sorry about 2.4 typo.   

Yes, and if not break Satoshis down more. Maybe a millisatoshi will be a unit of bitcoin in our lifetime. It will be coded in if it's ever a need, but that would mean most of the world uses bitcoin and currently with us capped at 1mb/block it's not going to happen anytime soon.

What limits are we talking about, 21million BTC are enough now (even though this target hasn't been reached. If more people buy bitcoin then tje value of satoshi will be much higher.

Why are we worrying about it now? No one who is alive at this moment won't be here to see how the last bitcoin will be mined anyway.

Like some of you said before, there is no problem with "bitcoin limits" because bitcoin is not finished product, it can be upgraded, can evolve and will change if we ever need it to.

where can we learn about all the other coin functionalities and is there really a use of all these currencies in the market. it looks like majority of the coins are just ponzi coins just to make some money for the devs. people do claim bitcoin to be big ponzi scheme which will burst at a later time,can someone explain what will happen when the last block is mined,people wont get new coins then what do you think all the coins in existence will have a higher value,i highly doubt about that possibility

2.4 Quadrillion Satoshis? you may be better off quoting in Bits :)

I think this can be changed through a fork later on if it's needed. And there are less and less BTC each day because people lose their coins.

You are going to have a hard time convincing people in this community to do that. They cannot even decide on big or small blocks as it

stands now. We will just have to hope that Side chains will reduce the need for more coins. People will also not just use Bitcoin, there are

about 800+ Alt coins out there... and the banks have not even started with their Blockchain based technologies yet.  ???

It would be enough I believe to run as a globally recognised currency. Whether 'the only' global currency is possible I doubt it. We won't see that in our lifetime any way even if it does eventually happen.

If we ever get to the point where the value of 1 satoshi is too high, then there can always be a side chain with a token whose value is pegged to a fraction of a satoshi -- 1/1000th of a satoshi, for example.

Can you maybe explain how it will split? Why aren't we able to do that right now? Does the system needs to be changed from the inside or?