Bitcoin Forum

As bitcoin approaches 2140, when "the last satoshi is created," how does the protocol handle this operation? Additionally, when people say, "there will never be more than 21 million bitcoins created," does that mean that technically there will not be more than 21 million bitcoins but that there can be slightly more than 21 million and it will never hit 22 million? In other words, is there an asymptote at 21 million, or 22 million, or neither because when the last satoshi is created is the exact same time it technically hits 21 million and the protocol checks and stops coinbase rewards?

The reward continues to half; when it halves too much, the block reward will round to 0.

Cool, so as long as the smallest unit is 10^-8 it rounds out at that point. Thanks.

Note that as a consequence of the math and precision used it's not actually 21 million, but 20,999,999.9769 - which apparently can be tweaked a bit to give 20,999,999.999999999496 .  Of course right now the smallest unit being handled is 0.00000001, so (and at this point I'm guessing - not sure how the code behaves for this) it would actually end up being 20,999,999.99999999.  21 million is close enough, though.

i've asked similar questions about hitting the 21 million mark and came to the conclusion it will not happen.

by 2140, everyone that's alive right now will be dead and gone... not our problem..

the only thing I can hope for is each BTC goes up in value to about $100K. That way people would own just fractions of a BTC and still be doing quite good..

I thought it was 2040 we will started to enter the decimal amounts of bitcoins per block..

And i also thought the 21m was slightly lower than the final amount of coins produced... Can anyone back me up on this?

It should be simple enough to do the maths and work that out..

Not necessarily.

http://www.alcor.org/FAQs/index.html

-B-

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Controlled_Currency_Supply

http://bitcoinmagazine.com/2842/block-reward-halving-a-guide/

+1

Everyone cremated or buried will be dead and gone.  Alcor, well, there is a >0 chance.

And due to a bug in some mining software in the early years of bitcoin, it will never even reach as high as 20,999,999.9769.  I can't remember exactly how man y bitcoins were permanently wiped from the blockchain, but the final number of bitcoins in existence will be less than 20,999,999.9769.

There's a coin called "21 coin"
It's goal is to compress 21 million bitcoins into only 21 coins.

It's currently trading at this exchange:
https://cryptorush.in/index.php?p=trading&m=21&b=BTC

Wow so they cloned the protocol and moved the decimal point? Sounds revolutionary!

Since the block reward started at 50 BTC, and halves every 4 years, then the total amount of btc produces is a geeometric series, which has a finite sum, of 21 million.

If there was infinite precision to the coins, then it would exactly hit 21 million. However, the coins cannot be subdivided more that the 8th decimal place. At one point, the halving of the reward will get lossy, and the coins actually rewarded will always be the "perfect" value rounded down to the nearest satoshi.

At one point the coins rewarded will be rounded to 0, and no more bitoins will be created. But since along the way, the rounding was always down, a little less that the "perfect" amount will have been created.

That being said, it is very possible that some times in the future, the protocol gets updated to allow a greather subdivision of the coins. (21 million bitcoins gives about 1000 satoshis per human being. It is not a lot of precision.) If it happens, then maybe the lossyness of the halving will start later, and the total amount of btc will be nearer to the "perfect" value.

ALSO, as it has been said earlier in the thread, some coins that were mined early on have been permently destroyed. So the total coins in circulation will be even lower than that.

i wonder how much for 1 bitc at that time .

either 0 or greater than $50,000

i'm guessing $1 million.  cause no one is finding any bugs in Bitcoin, EVER!

If you guys are going to post off-topic you might at least post a more serious longevity foundation whose in house research may very well lead to a cure to more than a few devastating age related diseases:

http://www.sens.org/

It's highly unlikely that Bitcoin still exists in 2140. Something even better will have been invented by then.

2140 is 124.8 years away.

This (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jeanne-Calment-1996.jpg) lady lived to be 122.4 years old.

Even without any increases in average lifespan at all, the increased population makes it likely someone alive today will be alive in 2140, without defrosting anyone.

In a sense, you could say that each one 21coin is equal to 1 million bitcoin.
21 coins equals to 21 million bitcoins.

Is this another knockoff of 42Coin?

Thank you for highlighting the reasoning that has led to the world being so f&*ked up...

What happen after 21 Million ?

Better the older generations do leave their descendants alone than ever try to anticipate and frustrate them.

More to the point then is the idea of leaving the world a better place than you found it and making an effort to not limit the prospects of future generations; which is perhaps more what you are looking to. Future problems are not ours to worry about - it's not our problem; all we have to do then is not make the problems worse. The obvious example being the economy and financial crisis. If there was only a solution to hand that could help solve the financial crisis; empower people; and give future generations opportunity to have a more stable base for their economy..

Miners only get transaction fees. Rest stays the same.

The answer is always 42!!  :D :D :D

what for? isnt bitcoin big enough already?

I thought it was 2040 we will started to enter the decimal amounts of bitcoins per block..

And i also thought the 21m was slightly lower than the final amount of coins produced... Can anyone back me up on this?

It should be simple enough to do the maths and work that out..