Bitcoin Forum

This discussion comes from this cool article that I read today: https://cryptotradernews.com/cryptocurrency/what-happens-when-the-bitcoin-counter-reaches-zero/ (https://cryptotradernews.com/cryptocurrency/what-happens-when-the-bitcoin-counter-reaches-zero/)

We will all probably be dead when this happens, but are there any thoughts on what the future will look like once every last Bitcoin has been mined?

Does BTC just end? Will transaction fees be enough to incentivize nodes to keep working?


I'm very curious about this. Thoughts?

People will probably decide that having an inflation rate at zero is a bad idea.  All they have to do is agree on the exe they click to have a higher inflation rate.  If the majority agrees its not really an issue, just takes consensus.

This will happen 120 years from now. The last bitcoin will be mined in 2140, from 2100 to 2140 it wil be mined approx 1 bitcoin/year (a guess),
until then there is sufficient time to discuss this.  50 years from now the quantum computers will be available.

Yep, and you may have to add some extra time in there. Quantum computing may be available in 50 years, but that doesn't mean the cost upon available will make it worth it to be used for mining bitcoin (w/ increased difficulty, etc).

There are SOO many variables involved here.

Needless to say though, I don't think BTC is going to just disappear or crash into non-existence. I do think it will be affected in the market, but I think it's anyones guess whether or not it will be a huge impact.

In 2140? Probably nothing, by then the price would be quite stable, apparently slowly gaining value (because fiat is purposely being inflated). Hopefully more nations would have adopted Austrian economics, with full reserve banking, and the unfounded fears of deflation would be a thing of the past.

Or, by then, another crypto would have taken over. What with Quantum computers on every home and what not... (Yes i know Bitcoin can be made quantum computing resistant, doesn't mean quantum crypto coins won't become interesting).

Honestly, I don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow...When this happens I am sure that there will be quantum computers that will replace the functions of the usual mining equipment.Well, in other words, just the kind of mining will take a very different form.

there's no point dwelling on the year 2140. the mining reward algorithm approaches the hard cap tangentially, so the vast majority of bitcoins will already be mined hundreds of years before then. after less than 3 decades from launch, the emission rate will only be ~0.39 BTC/block. (it started at 50 BTC/block)

so we should see the effects of this diminished inflation a very, very long time before 2140. and re what will happen, the answer is we don't know for sure. but the fee market appears robust and we've already seen blocks in the wild where transaction fees > block subsidy, so that gives some hope that fees will be sufficient to incentivize adequate miner security in the future.

Bitcoin falls to zero, maybe if bitcoin has been abandoned, bitcoin is still valuable because bitcoin trust is very valuable. There is no need to think panic so far and still think positively that bitcoin still has a future.

If ever this would happen, the remaining Bitcoins might still circulate around the market and the prices might be too high because there's a lack in supply.
However, this will take time and could possibly happen years from now. So it's really necessary to buy while there's still a good supply of Bitcoin.

Well we might not even be here when this happens. No one actually knows what will happen to bitcoin once all bitcoin had been mined. The market price of bitcoin would've been massive by that time, and I think by that time bitcoin already had a solid foundation and already adapted by the mass.

Once every bitcoins are mined, we will just continue using it as currency.
Only btc mining will be ended. By that time there will be more powerful sources of renewable energy and more powerful hardwares, so I think there will be alternatives to miners to create the transactions and keep the network operating.
I believe governments could keep the nodes working, through a system which people would only need to pay for maintenance, what means cheaper costs on transactions.

I think the calculation of bitcoin prices reaching zero will not occur in the near term, bitcoin is still an attractive coin and more likely to survive in the long term, think positively and not have to worry too much.

Exactly! Nobody knows what is going to happen in the future. It could go up or it could go down but not likely to drop to zero. And in the year 2140? None of us will really care what it does. We all will be dust by then. That is the only certainty in this scenario. :-[

Your question has been asked thousands (or perhaps millions) of times. Here is your answer: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=what+happens+when+all+the+bitcoins+have+been+mined

We all want to see bitcoin succeed in the future, and its hard to know wether we will live up to that level, or exit in the market on the early stage. I do hope that bitcoin can become more expensive, a limited supply will help BTC to hit $100k, we should live 50 more years just keep your healthy living with bitcoin and you will witness the great price of bitcoin.

The motivation that you do deserves to be disclosed, indeed, don't think that bitcoin will happen as expected. I strongly agree that until now bitcoin is still the best and long-term investment. there is no need to worry about things going to happen to bitcoin until zero, it won't be possible.

I heard somewhere that the super computers or quantum computers can pose problem to bitcoin and the blockchain technology...can you confirm this information? Anyway, I think we should not be worrying much about what can happen 120 years from now. I am sure there will be so many developments and innovations along the way and we don't even know if bitcoin can be recognizable at that time as it is even today evolving.

that is not a "cool article" that is a very low quality text written on a click bait website with a different title to hide the fact that it is repeating the oldest question that has been asked and answered in a much better manner that this "text" is doing thousands of times before. it is basically repeating "What Happens When the Last Bitcoin is Mined", if you search that term you will find countless better things to read if you are really interested in this question!
and if it is your own site that you are advertising then maybe it is time you thought about other ways of making money!

Why would we worry on that when we are seeing now that big companies are planning to enter the crypto space. In fact Facebook just announced their global coin to be launch next year, I'm sure they are seeing the bright future, opposite on what the article is telling. Reading such would only give us doubt on the future, so it's better to read more positive article and with realistic predictions.

I'm not defending the article but after checking the contents it didn't gave a negative impression. I only saw the author mentioned a couple of factors that could affect Bitcoin's future like the price and possible changes. Those articles shouldn't give us doubts because these questions have been answered a lot of times already.

It seems to me that everything will be fine, bitcoins will be sold to different people and passed from hand to hand. Given that this is a cryptocurrency, it will not corrupt like ordinary paper money.

now what ?? then its complete mature no one can mine bitcoin anymore you can only buy them from someone who hold them and your question "does BTC just end?" doesnt make any sense bitcoin can still operate even with one computer cpu mine it the difficulty will change every 5 block (CMIIW)

You better keep your worries about bitcoin, I think bitcoin can still be long-lived, which you can see in decline and bitcoin can recover, and don't let yourself lose the opportunity to benefit from bitcoin because your mind is too negative.

This is too far into the future to know what will happen. I see miners continuing to secure the network to collect transaction fees and a sky-high price to justify their efforts. There is also a possibility of a fork to modify the incentive structure.

When this will happen may be we will become dust  ;D ;D
But i think this can not be happened.
 Bitcoin has a bright future. In futute Bitcoin would convert into solid. and the price of it's would be massive.

There were many threads earlier regarding this topic, first it will take a long time for all the coins to get mined and second important factor is that the price would be so high and we need a better solution to counter the price when it comes to transaction charges, bigger blocks was one solution but the question remains how big the blocks can be and whether we can have a better solution than we have now to balance everything. Even now the miners will be earning a few extra bitcoins apart from 12.5 bitcoin they earn with every block and by that time the price will be that high that they will compensation with the transaction fees alone.

We will have to decide in the future whether we create more BTC or leave the inflation rate at 0%.

1 bitcoin per year how your calculating its based on the blocks are mined it should be blocks are mined . there is around  12.5 bitcoin per block . Per day it will be more than 100 blocks are mined .

We can ask hypothetical questions about what's going to happen with BTC one day when last is mined, but probably none of us who read this will experience that moment. However, this will happen for more than 100 years, and it is much more important what will happen in the near future.

For me personally mining will be almost ended around 2032 when 99% of all bitcoin will be mined, and even before that. Most of us will experience that moment, and whoever is stay with bitcoin until then will probably be witnessed great success. We should not forget that even Satoshi is say :

Even after all Bitcoin yet to be mined gets mined, that doesn't stop transaction confirmation or won't transactions be mined as well and confirmed on the blockchain? To me I think provided transactions are still being made with Bitcoin, there's no such thing as Bitcoin dying. What we will fear is transaction cost being high once again to enable miners cover cost for their equipment and time.

are you a miner? of course transaction costs are very high for equipment costs. this isn't over for miners

Once quantum computers begin appearing and if one quantum computer can brute force the private key by feeding it only the public key, that will be the end of cryptocurrencies as we know it.

There are also quantum resistant ledgers, I wonder how these blockchains will fare vs a quantum computer. ???

Simple. Instead of the number of coins gaining mass the value will increase. There will be more bitcoin adopters and no more bitcoin coming in so the coins will be divided into more parts by more people and thus be worth more.


Don't be silly. You can defend the address with the same computing power as they attack with. How is a few quantum computers going to stop an entire network?

This shows the end of Btc won't happen with the mining of last Btc. As the price gradually keeps increasing, so will it be when the last coin gets mined the price won't be the same again.