Bitcoin Forum

So when the miners are no longer rewarded coins, why would the miners keep paying for hardware, labour electricity, internet, rent, cooling, etc.?

Will they then be paid with only transaction fees?
There is not enough ROI in fees alone now, so what is going to happen?
Increased transaction fees?
Will that cause everyone to drop bitcoin and move on to a cheaper coin?

Can someone explain the end to me.  I do not understand it after all coins are mined - how the system will continue on.

https://bitcoin.org/en/faq

"The number of new bitcoins created each year is automatically halved over time until bitcoin issuance halts completely with a total of 21 million bitcoins in existence. At this point, Bitcoin miners will probably be supported exclusively by numerous small transaction fees."

miners will probably be supported exclusively by numerous small transaction fees.

if they are not large enough to cover running costs then the higher cost miners leave and difficulty adjusts lower rewarding the more efficient miners that stay.

Will they then be paid with only transaction fees? / There is not enough ROI in fees alone now, so what is going to happen?

As the Bitcoin network grows and the block reward drops, transaction fees will become the primary source of income for miners. Theoretically, this shouldn't be a problem because the amount of accumulated fees will continue to grow along with the network. The more people using Bitcoin for everyday purchases, the more miners will collect in fees for processing those transactions. In a few decades, it may not be unreasonable to see transaction fees at BTC25, while the block reward itself dwindles will below BTC1.0...sort of a reverse to what we're seeing now.

Increased transaction fees?

An increase in transaction fees could also happen, and would seem likely as the network grows.

Will that cause everyone to drop bitcoin and move on to a cheaper coin?

I suppose it's possible, but it also comes down to how you view a "cheaper coin". At current prices, I can purchase a little over 172,000 satoshis for just $1!

I do not understand it after all coins are mined - how the system will continue on.

With the coins all mined, the system continues based on transactions throughout the Bitcoin economy, with miners processing those transactions. Those earned fees should still be able to marginally cover a miner's expenses (if they do, the network/difficulty slowly grows...if they don't, the network/difficulty slowly falls). The price per BTC (or mBTC, or Satoshi) will also adjust based on this.

they will always be payed as thats were the transaction fee comes from. when all BTC are mined hopefully a lot of people (will have adopted and use them) will send a lot of BTC back and forth with these fees that pay for the miners.

A penny isn't much but getting a penny from a hundred billion transactions a year is a lot.  The amount of tx activity will determine the compensation of miners and thus the size and security of the network.  If only a tiny number of people are still using Bitcoin a century form now then the network and security will also be tiny.  Personally I think that is unlikely.  Bitcoin is either going to be many magnitudes larger or it is going to go away.

In my opinion - after all coins (bitcoins) will be mined sha256 will be uhm ... old :) and not good.

There will be Bitcoin2 or something as good as Bitcoin so after all Bitcoin mined - miners will perhaps change the coin  to mine  but some will stay as support - but I think Bitcoin will be not very good then :) after 20 years a looooooot things will change :)

There will be an Internet2 at some point.  TCP/IP was invented in 1974.  Four decades is a long time.  Some people may stay on the original internet but most will have moved on to the new Internet by then.

I get what you mean :)

And yes - maybe you are right and I am wrong.

Maybe bitcoin will stay as long as TCP/IP or longer. I don't know that for sure. Nobody know that.

This is why this sub is called "Mining speculations" :)

Because we cannot say someone is right... :)

You know this discussion reminds me of the Y2K problem.
But  it's reversed, we are anticipating a problem which will come in 2140.
I'm sure as time comes along we will see this become a non-issue.

Sort of. The block reward drops to 0 in 2140, sure, but we'll be seeing the importance of a growing Bitcoin network (thus more transactions / revenue based on fees) far sooner than that. The next reward halving comes in 2016, following the drop that happens every 4 years or so. By ~2032, the reward will be under BTC1.0...so either the price per BTC has to skyrocket to cover expenses incurred by mining, or the amount of fees earned has to make up for it.

I can agree with this type of thinking :)

But - maybe you don't know but Y2K problem was indeed a quite big for databases... and there was a lot of work to make it works correctly. But almost non-issue.

Bitcoin will become mainstream.
Banking will obselete as people have all realized the dirty secrets of money.
All financial transactions are decentralized.
ASIC chip of 1PHash/sec is so cheap power consumption is just what cellphone antenna consumes.
Communication devices like smartphone or wristwatches will have that ASIC.
ASIC chip mining will no longer be a rewarding process but a necessary routine to sutain decentralized way of life. Just like you have to have a phone to communicate.

Rewards from mining tx comes as side benefit like a lottery.