Bitcoin Forum

I heard that bitcoin is controlled by we users and miners,
so I wonder what would happen if all the bitcoin miners stop mining bitcoin?.

I'm curious to know what would happen to bitcoin. :-\

The network would grind to a halt, no new transactions would get processed anymore and the market would get batshit insane due to downward pressure caused by the mining crisis and upward pressure due to the lack of liquidity caused by no new coins being able to enter exchanges.

It's an unlikely scenario though, as someone would always be willing to mine bitcoins since the less miners there are, the more profitable it becomes for the individual miner.

This is certainly not going to happen. Bitcoin mining is based on the concept of - Mining Paradox.
Suppose 10 people are mining Bitcoins and earning profits. Now seeing them 10 more enter. Earlier mining profit was distributed among 10 people and now 20. Suppose 10 more people enter, now mining become non-profitable as well as miners have to bare losses. As a result, several will leave mining. Now suppose 20 miners leave mining, once again mining will become profitable and new miners will enter. So this circle will continue but never drop to zero.

PS: Well, if something similar happens, I am ready with my small mining rig. When everyone else stop mining, I will start with it and become millionaire the very next day.  :D

Even when electricity price for mining will be more than the price of bitcoin - miners will continue mining because of thinking about growing up of bitcoin price. So, miners never stop.

If all miners stop mining Bitcoin there will be no one responsible for confirming transactions so everyone will not be able to send and receive their coins, and nothing will be added to its circulating supply. But there is no need to worry about this because even if the majority of bitcoin miners stop mining it, it will just create new opportunity to small miners and new comers to make profit as mining difficulty will be decreased. And it is very unlikely to happen because there are big mining companies that make huge profit from it, if they stop they will lose a lot of money.

Theoretically, the network would be totally fucked.

That said, it's pretty much impossible for that ever to happen.  Miners currently receive 12.5 BTC as the block reward, plus all of the transaction fees, when they mine a block.

In the unlikely scenario that a large number of miners stopped, the blocks would slow down until the next difficulty adjustment.  When the next adjustment occurred, it would keep the blocks being mined approximately every 10 minutes, so there would be a much, much larger reward and mining would be many times more profitable than it was before.

At that point, more miners would hop on (or hop back on for that matter).  It's a self-adjusting system.

Its simple really. Suppose that you have a circle-arranged-train-track, and obviously Bitcoin is the train. Somewhere in that circle is the starting point, so as the train (bitcoin) moves, it will just going to stay in the tracks. So basically, its travel would just repeat and repeat. Just like what happens now in Bitcoin, as it will be mined (starting point), it will trace the track, so transactions over transaction and will eventually return to the starting point where by confirming those transactions, it will be mined.

So what if the track broke, then it would likely just going to stop. There will be no operation for it to move. It will lose its value and eventually Altcoins will take over.

if mining stopped there would be a mad scramble to get up and running to hoover up all the unconfirmed transactions.

it would stop temporarily until the panic stopped and start right back up again.

there will always be someone waiting on the sidelines to take advantage.

that was already the case a few years back after a sizable price crash, and a good number of miners shut their rigs off, but a good deal of miners stayed active, keeping the network active.

the difficulty is adjusted every block though, is it not? the difficulty adjusts for the next block accordingly based on the current hash rate of the network so that statistically, it would take 10 minutes for a block to be mined. and how would the reward be bigger? it's set to continue giving 12.5 btc every block until the next halvening, and so on.

Then the transactions won't be processed and an increasing number of unconfirmed transactions will flood the network. But this is much likely not gonna happen. The demand for bitcoin transactions is also growing and the transaction fee is getting higher, making the miners more willing to process the transactions.

No.  The difficulty is adjusted every 2016 blocks (approximately two weeks).
No.  It adjusts every 2016 blocks so that it will take approximately 10 minutes for a block to be mined.
Because if a large number of miners leave at the same time, it would theoretically result in slower blocks until the next difficulty adjustment, so the reward would remain the same for each miner.  After the difficulty adjustment, blocks would go back to normal speed, so it would be extremely profitable for the remaining miners.

If the miners should stop mining, it will be a big hit to the bitcoin community. There will be no new processing of transactions.

Its impossible for sure but, if all miner stop mining bitcoin,  bitcoin will be paralyze half,  maybe there no new transaction will be happen, like converting eth to bitcoin and etc.

no one can stop bitcoin miners this is impossible , to stop miners i think there is two idea stop internet or electricity .

my opinion on that scenario I think bitcoin goes die, mining is the main source of bitcoin circulation supplies in the whole community, and the people thinking hodl  of bitcoin are very profitable so if the miners stop mining the bitcoin have possibility to be short the bitcoin supply.

The network will stop, no new transactions will be processed again and the market will be chaotic because of pressure dropped due to the mining crisis due to lack of liquidity caused by the absence of new coins that can enter the stock.This is an unlikely scenario, because everyone will always mine bitcoins as fewer miners are more profitable for individual miners.

Technically, Network will crash coz no-one is there to confirm any transaction. No trade will be performed, no price rising, and people will get frustrated. Even if Miners came back for mining then also BTC price will be crashed to floor as people will loose trust from it

But im still curious about what the relationship between these miners with the whole transaction of the blockchain.
i thought these miners only do an activity with the pools, and there are no relation with the transaction network

Is not possible, because possibility of bitcoin miners to stop is less than 2%, but  the other way round such thing happened, nothing to say, it effect every body, including country economy, because many stock brokers and company traders are base on, and many more, everything we  break down. and i believed such bad things can't happy as long cryptocurrencies concerned and very effective in labor market with high potential competition. BTC minner and others come to stays.  

Bitcoin becomes very insecure if miners stop mining. The value being transferred would sit in limbo and the transactions would need to be cancelled. Value would not be lost, but no transactions could occur.

If bitcoin miners stop, the bitcoin network would be problematic. Our send-receive transactions would not be processed. Also, there will be no new bitcoin generated.

Very interesting to theorise something like that.

It is clear that there would be no transactions between BTC wallets.
But what would happen with BTC in exchanges.. would it be frozen and unable to transform to FIAT?

If the bitcoin miners stop the network will stop.. The pending transaction and transaction fee will increase until it crash...

If the miners stop operating, surely it'll be getting exaggerated as an issue by the users of bitcoin. Such scenario never happens, because miners serve as the back bone of bitcoin. New coins won't get generated and the same will lead to an increase in price of bitcoin.

Mining is a process to gain bitcoin with the used of specific equipment. And miners is one of the factor that affect bitcoin price becasue they are the one who gain bitcoin or move bitcoin stock in the market. But the main factor that affects bitcoin price is peoole support with the used of Bitcoin. As long as we used Bitcoin in transaction, investment or even in trading it'd stock mkve in the market having the ability and capability to grow and develop its price and value.

Why would the miners ever stop? I suggest you taking a look at game theory to understand a little bit better how things work in any economic setting.

Now, if a big part of the miners move to another coin, then it means the block time is going to be super slow until the next difficulty adjustment, which would mean an insane amount of unconfirmed transactions.

It is not possible for them to stop as it will always go back to being profitable at some point and nobody will miss the chance to mine then.

This is true. It'll always reach an equilibrium where it will be profitable to mine for someone. I think only a tragedy would mean everyone stops mining Bitcoin, or if the price suddenly tanks to almost zero.

If miners would stop mining than transactions would be confirmed and bitcoins transfers will be totally stop which could be deadly for bitcoins.But bitcoins prices are increasing very fast so i don't think so that anyone would stop mining as it would be quite valuable in future if the price of bitcoins increases more.

If miners stopped mining there wont be any more transactions that can be processed.
Like these days, its really hard to transact with bitcoin and those transaction fees are so high
Its is because there's a great imbalance with miners and with respect to bitcoin users. Transactions wont get processed fast because of lack of miners
And if no one mines maybe  bitcoin would die.

If it is possible that one by one the bitcoin miner stops, the price of bitcoin will decrease because of low of demand, but i think that is not possible.

if miners will stop mining, there would be huge demand in bitcoin, because the btc that are circulating will not circulate because of the system of trading is trying to hoard bitcoin to sell it in the future where bitcoin price is high. like what is happening in fiat currency, where the governments are not producing new money by printing, based on their reserves, resulting huge exchange in dollars to other currency, same goes to bitcoin when no one is mining, there would be huge demand, and huge demand means huge profit.

The miners help to mine block much faster on every bitcoin transaction, the more miners, the faster.
i think if the miners stop mining, every transaction in bitcoin will pending or going very slow.

t's an unlikely scenario though, as someone would always be willing to mine bitcoins since the less miners there are, the more profitable it becomes for the individual miner.There are also a lot of bitcoin in circulation. After all, there are so many benefits that many of them will continue and will not stop. The one-day stoppage of miners is a huge loss. Besides, every miner is not willing to stop.

Demand wont necessarily crash if miners stop, but tx fees will definitely be higher and a lot longer. Probably wont happen though, less miners = more potential profit for miners.

What makes the thousands miners stop mining? I think there must be something new and beyond Bitcoin or the worse scenario is the end of the world.
Otherwise, they are unstoppable and switch between coins only.

Without miners, the transaction will soon stop, and the whole bitcoin network will soon collapse, because it is impossible for everyone to do the OTC trade. Then the value of the bitcoin will soon disappear.

miners are the true believers that bitcoin are becoming more valuable each day, so i guess they won't stop mining until their are still more bitcoins to mine. Miners are also the backbone of the blockchain technology, without them it is hard to process a bitcoin transaction becuase they will pass through a bitcoin mining hardware to secure transaction.

No miner means no transaction, on the other hand means the doomsday of bitcoin
Why people use bitcoin if they cannot do any transaction with it ;D

Miners have important role in blockchain, with the price surge of bitcoin I think there will more miners added everyday so that there will be no pending transaction again later

This pretty much explains it. The miners are a very important group in the Bitcoin ecosystem and without them carrying their role in the ecosystem it becomes a big issue and possible breakdown. As long as there is a mining incentive the scenario of the miners leaving the scene might not take place.

If bitcoin mining stops then bitcoin transaction process will take a long time because bitcoin transaction verification is done by bitcoin mining so if it stops at bitcoin transaction very much then transaction will be very long or can fail to be sent. So to support the success of the transaction many bitcoin users then this system is divided into thousands of computers to process bitcoin transactions.

This isnt going to happen but to answer this question, Bitcoin will fall and become worthless. Miners are the most important people in the world of Cryptocurrency. They are the one who runs every transactions fast and prevent double spending. Theyre keeping every transactions made in the blockchain. Thus,  I cant find any reasons why a miner would stop mining, when this is one of the most profitable way of earning money.

Not all miners work in pool. Pool refers to a group of miners who pool their resources and earn collective profits.
Else otherwise, miners have much to do with transaction network. Bitcoin ecosystem can't work without miners. They are in direct/positive correlation with Bitcoin. A moment mining stops, all pending btc transactions will come to neutral gear too.

Don't bother with such scenario because it's not going to happen. There will always be miners mining Bitcoin until it's the final number of coins is reached.
In opposite scenario I guess Bitcoin will stop to exist because the whole Bitcoin system can't exist without miners, just like it can't exist without users. So, this actualy makes no sense. It's like you are asking what would happen if the Earth stops turning around.

We'll we don't know what will happen, but if it might happen that'll be bad.

haha they would lose the tons of profit they are making (while the hardware operates only) not mentioning all the money they dumped to buy the hardware. And we are taking here about facilities worth millions of dollars. So while we can toy with discussing such topics, it is like discussing the total impossibility.

Indeed the miner has more to lose than us holders vecause miners are handling all of the expenses the electricity, maintenance of equipments, rent if you have a mining rig and lastly the salaries of workers. Although the miners have a choice to mine on bitcoins or switch on to the other cryptocurrencies but due mining reward the miners wouldn't let the opportunity slip intp their hands especially the block reward.

If the miners stop, then the blockchain system will encounter problems. Because bitcoin requires confirmation to blockchain about its activity, I can not imagine if the miners stopped.

The scenario is that, that would breed confusion and chaos in the whole of crypto market because all altcoin would be affected, no transfer and no receiving. For instance, mere network problem  or network jamb due to too much transactions causes problems and restiveness, not to talk of total shut down of minning.

I mean, is more like a difficult scenario to envisage.

Thanks for your info about the stopping of bitcoin miners.
So I would say what if the government started to target the huge bitcoin mining farms stopping the process
of mining, do you think this could be the end of bitcoin?.

You have heard wrong buddy. We the users have no role to control bitcoin, it is controlled by the miners. We only give them directiona to put our bitcoin from one place to another, like from one bitcoin address to another address. Bitcoin is purely in the control of miners. If they stop processing transaction and stop mining bitcoin we can't do anything else then just watch and see our transactions pending. Many of miners have already quit mining bitcoin therefore, we are paying the insane transaction fees and have to wait for hours for the confirmation.
If the remaining miners quit mining bitcoin, it will simply crash be of no use anymore. 

Miners control Bitcoin transaction and release of new Bitcoins into the system. So if there are no Miners, that will be the end of Bitcoin,which will never happen.

I think it will never happen because if the mining will be stopped then there will be no new coins entering the exchange and no new transactions will be processed and will be more profitable for each individual miner

Lets say we will come in to the situation stated above.
Then i am sure that it will be the end of bitcoin.
I am not saying that this might happen but if ever it does happen then all our works today will be for nothing.

I would start mining again with my USB Block Erupters and Antiminer U2's :D

Well, it's not gonna happen. The process is bitcoin mining is circular. So, it never stops. If some miners stop mining then the mining edge of other miners will increase thus increasing their profit ratio. So, here every second person is fighting for more and more money, and nobody wants to lose the race. And if uncertainly it would happen then bitcoin will crash within seconds resulting massive loss.

If bitcoin miners stop I don't think it will greatly affects the market of bitcoin because so far majority or almost 90% of bitcoin supply is already in the circulation so the remaining for me is immaterial witg regards to the supply that we have now also just in case the supply isn't to cover the demand the pricing for bitcoin will only adjust and go higher which I think investors and all people will only love to hear.

I think this question is not valid. How you don’t know about the fact that if the manufacturers of some product or service comes to stop, what would happen with that survive, definitely that will be going to an end. Same will happen with bitcoin if it is so. If miners just started the work, bitcoin will be seizing in the market and everything related to them will be just jammed.

If ever bitcoin miners were to stop mining all together then the system will gradually fluctuate resulting to bitcoins downfall, but we should also note that that would probably never happen as miners are rewarded large amount of bitcoins for their work.

If there were no miners to mine bitcoins, then no additional btc will be added to the community. This is unlikely as many are aiming to mine btc.

No mining means no transaction, so there couldn't be any exchange and bitcoin market would be down. Same effect as a global Internet failure. Both are hardly probable.

Transactions become impossible if all the minor stops.
But when someone ceases mining, the opportunity to dig marginally moves to others. Minor does not stop staying.

you know the moment some miners stop mining a given currency the difficulty goes down and at the same time the profits (expressed in that currency) go up for the same effort. So they really can't stop mining bitcoin and start mining something else, because a few moments later they will be losing a lot of profit

i think that the blockchain will process slowly and slower than now because miner is used to cover the blockchain or processing it

If miners stop, the BTC market will collapse as there won't be any more BTC to buy. However, so you really think miners will stop?