Bitcoin Forum

I've been thinking about something that I believe some people will also be thinking about, which is what will happen after 21 million bitcoins have been mined. Currently, I believe around 18 million bitcoins have already been mined within 10 years, leaving only 3 million bitcoins to be mined. According to projections, the last bitcoin will be mined by 2140, which means we still have 100 years before the last bitcoin is mined.

According to what I think, after the maximum bitcoin of 21 million bitcoins has been mined, miners will continue to be active, but they will no longer be able to mine more bitcoins. Instead, they will make money from transaction fees collected from each transaction.
This is just my opinion; please let me know what you think.

My question is;
- what happens after 21 million bitcoins have been mined?
- What will miners do after the total of 21 million bitcoins have been mined?
- Will the total supply be increased because some bitcoin holders have died and others have lost their private keys?
Pls your suggestion will be highly appropriate and I believe will also help other members.

There will never be 21 million bitcoins.  The total will never exceed 20,999,999.9769

And, because some miners have failed to pay themselves the full reward that they were allowed, the total will actually be less than that.

What will happen is that the inflationary subsidy will be cut in half (truncating to the next 0.00000001 BTC) every 210,000 blocks (approximately every 4 years) until it shrinks to zero.  Then there will no longer be a subsidy on the blocks.


The exact same thing they do today. Solo miners and mining pools will continue to build blocks from transactions. Solo miners and mining pools participants will continue to perform proof of work on those blocks.  Income will continue to be earned from the block reward. (Note that the block reward currently consists of the inflationary subsidy PLUS the sum of all transaction fees of all transactions in the block. Once the subsidy is gone, the reward will just be the fees).


No.  The available supply in the market will be REDUCED because some bitcoin holders have lost their private keys (due to death or otherwise).

Why should the total supply increase? Are you saying that we should increase the total supply, because the accessible coins are less than 21 million?

Increasing the 21 million limit is against the consensus rules and it will never happen in bitcoin.
For changing the 21 million limit, we need a hard fork.

Once all the bitcoins have been mined, it’s supply would be tapped out. Then as you said, the miners will get incentivized for processing transactions with fees.

50 years from now, I would guess someone smarter than us starts figuring out a solution

One thought I had would be to use the current BTC protocol to start a new "sidechain" from 0. So the same security and features that have been built since Satoshi started the project, with a way to swap current bitcoin for the new blockchains bitcoin

Would everyone switch right away or 20-50 years down the road? Who knows

Im guessing someone smarter than us will have a lot better idea than that 20-30 years from now, so don't really worry about it

This is an interesting topic and it didn't come to my mind what will happened if the 21 million Bitcoin have been mind since I read before that before the last Bitcoin will be mined we are all dead probably but it's nice to know what possibly could happen. I thought there will be a Bitcoin fork and the Bitcoin will extend its supply but seems there's already a fork Bitcoin Cash and other forks already.

The mining process continues, but miners won't be rewarded with the usual block rewards. They will have to manage with the transaction fees only. 

Same answer as above.

Bitcoin is only Bitcoin if it sticks to the original rules or modified rules that don't negatively affect the 3 pillars of Bitcoin (transparency, decentralization, and immutability). The original rules state a total cap of around 21 million units. If you change this to 25, 50, or an unlimited cap, that's no longer the cryptocurrency people agreed to use.

Tip to you and everyone else, use the forum search option and/or any other search engine, this question has been asked for sure a few hundred times on this forum.

Can miners still mine Bitcoin after the 21 million Bitcoins have been mined? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=153640.0)
How will Bitcoin survive after all 21M coins have been mined? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5128657.0)
What Happens to Bitcoin After All 21 Million are Mined? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1957719.0)
What will be the date of last bitcoin mined? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=173145.0)


There is no need to guess numbers since we have accurate real-time data  18 834 256 (https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/).

The amount of Bitcoins will be under 21 million coins people round up to 21 million coins in the real world we have much less Bitcoin in circulation because a unknown amount of coins have been lost but we have probably lost millions of coins from negligence.

There will be less miners mining blocks because the incentive will be smaller atm miners get rewarded from block rewards and transaction fees when the block rewards stop because Bitcoin is not being generated anymore miners will only receive transaction fee. The difficulty will probably drop as the miners drop. We will always have miners though because there will always be a incentive to mine for transaction rewards.
Bitcoin total will never be increased I think it is possible with a hard fork but you would have no support for it. Satoshi when he created Bitcoin knew that people would lose the coins and die. He probably worked out that 21 million coins is the best amount for inflation and value but he would have known that a lot of coins will be lost.

Why do you need a solution? What is the problem? Bitcoin was created like this everyone knows that this is going to happen eventually but by the time it happens it will be a new generation of people in Bitcoin because every one of us will be dead. A side chain would not work it would make Bitcoin worthless because you are creating more coins and putting them into circulation it would be no different then fiat then because governments always bringing in more fiat money in circulation. The only time a sidechain or a hard fork should happen is when most Bitcoin has been lost through generations because of negligence and death but that would not happen for a couple of generations I think probably around 2-5 generations after the total supply has been mined.

I have said this before, I believe when it comes to “life or death” of Bitcoin, the community will come to consensus to a hard fork to save the protocol, and agree to some measures to continue the sustainability of the system.

Or just wait around till the next 3-4 block halvings, maybe by that time and bitcoin is around 20 million being mined already and the rest of the 1 million might take the years to be mined.

Also take note of how many bitcoins we have lost in circulation already.

And as per @DannyHamilton have said, it's not a exact 21 million:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Controlled_supply#Projected_Bitcoins_Long_Term

You can't know that bitcoins are gone for good unless you've made an OP_RETURN transaction that essentially proves the burning. Even if you could, the system is designed to be deflationary and as long as the community thinks it should be 21M, it will. No one will ever come into an agreement for this, though, because no user is benefited from inflating their currency.

What kind of hard fork will that be? You mean if the security drops in the long term, right?

Not really no, even if the coins were permanently lost, it just means that the available supply would be reduced. It can even reach the point where we would use smaller units of Bitcoin such as satoshi to count the amounts (or maybe even smaller) if need be. There's nothing really wrong with the intended 21 million I must say, even if we lost hundreds of BTC, the network would still run faithfully since the price would naturally adjust depending on the total amount of available supply together with the demand.

A hard fork that would increase the coin supply. I can’t find the interview, but it was with Peter Todd who said that he believes it to be “OK” if it took Bitcoin to that path. Personally, I don’t know if I’m currently OK, or not OK with it.

It is amazing how many members of this forum speculate about things that are exact and easily accessible to everyone. Sometime around 2030, a total of 99.00% of all Bitcoin will be mined, and 1% or 210 000 BTC will remain for the next 100 years. We will reach 20 million BTC around the year 2027, ie just before the end of the reward era 5.

https://i.imgur.com/dOrpXLc.png
Source (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Controlled_supply)

There's no reason to ever increase the coin supply. Not-even-one. The system works currently with this circulating supply and any change in it would be consensus-ly irrational.

As I said before, there'll never be a user who'll support this because it'll instantly reduce their wealth power. One may fork the code and increase the supply; no one will follow other than those who aren't using Bitcoin and want to have profit.

This will be the case. Miners will be compensated for confirming transactions in the block. But I do think that the closer we get in reaching the 21 million supply, the lower the denominations would be in mining. Obviously, price of BTC would skyrocket when that happens (Law of demand and supply) but a fork might be needed in order the 21 million supply to somehow be affected.


While a hard fork might be the answer, I do agree that it is not needed as the system works as it is. The volatility might also change thus disrupting the market price.

What, maybe that question is very important for you, if yes, you can see below.

What Happens to Bitcoin After All 21 Million Are Mined? (https://www.investopedia.com/tech/what-happens-bitcoin-after-21-million-mined/)

These four sources, surely you will find for answers to your questions.

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No, i didn't check your post, it doesn't matter i'll edit it if it was first by you, only one i left.

Ok, no problem, hopefully what I left there, the OP can find the answer.

The only reason will be when Bitcoin has been completely mined and has been lost through the centuries. We do not have to worry about that but in 5 centuries when people have lost Bitcoin because of death Bitcoin could become instinct. That is the only reason why Bitcoin should be increased but that is assuming if Bitcoin is still here in centuries.

Volatility will go down look at the charts above it will tell you that inflation will go down which will reduce the volatility.

If there's a Bitcoin fork, that isn't a Bitcoin protocol at all or even how hard a fork it is.  Bitcoin remained on its protocol and no one can revive the code, it's complicated if we force to implement a hard fork.  Look at the BCH, it seems they had similarities on Bitcoin but it's totally different.  In short, it's very crucial to apply a hard fork on Bitcoin just for the sake to extend the supply, you'll never break the code.

We don't need to worry if the total supply of 21 million has been mined, miners can still earn through the transaction fee that every spend happens and there will be a new block will be discovered.

Anyway, don't think that too much, that's far far away in the future.

@YOSHIE, I would expect some shitposter to do what you did, but as a Legendary member aren't you able to read a few posts in this thread but you've literally posted the same links as me a few posts above ???

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5363338.msg58096206#msg58096206

there is already alot of circle jerking in a certain group about increasing the supply but hiding such under a silly thing called millsat

at the moment 6.25btc is represented in binary as:
100101010000001011111001000000
which is actually 625000000 units of measure. thats the real hard rule for new coin production
(there is no such thing as btc at binary or consensus rule, nor held on the blockchain or in set in raw tx data)

the certain group want to make it 12 decimal bitcoin IE 6250000000000 units. but then shift the divider to still be perceived at GUI (user interface) level as 6.25btc

but at binary level it would then be:
1011010111100110001000001111010010000000000
allowing for 12 more 'halvings' meaning 48 more years of divide the units of measure before it cant divide no more

but essentially it just means pretending there are still 21mill 'bitcoin' even though there are 1000x more units of sharable value. and also breaking the rules of the binary limits and also the amount of halvings and such

all so that this certain group can destroy bitcoins trust of certain features never getting broke just to make bitcoin compatible with other altnets that should themselves change to fit bitcoin not make bitcoin fit them

So everyone is focused on the technicalities and less on the most obvious thing that might occur
We'll stop seeing topics about what will happen when all the coins are mined!!!

This will be probably a bigger achievement than bitcoin surviving for the next century as I'm starting to think it's becoming easier for people to solve a block than use the search function, I'm really wondering, would it be possible to reach 21 million topics about this before all the coins are mined?

Then we face a huge bitcoin market dump. Bitcoin will loose its real value and then it will not be dream of investors to trade. Because after a huge amount of bitcoin will be mined then everyone has bitcoin and than it will loose its value.

Thank you for reminding me why I almost always click "ignore" on any user that has a signature ad before I ever waste any time reading any of the nonsense they post.

To be honest, I don't know and I don't think that nobody exactly knows what's going to happen. Remember that the last block would be mined in 2140 I think and by that time, no one in this forum is alive to witness that so I think it's not a worry for us.

Along with Danny, I would also like to thank you for spitting this meaningless message. By the way, the last block isn't planned to be mined in 2140. You're talking about the last satoshi.

but plans are being made to alter things soon to affect that pre-acknowledged date. so while playing head in sand thinking 'oh dont worry let our grandad kids figure it out. and fix the problems made by their ancestors.'

we should actually be discussing the plans that are in progress NOW that will change things NOW which affect the future.

EG the plans to keep the blocksize stifled to only sub 3k tx which affects fee amounts thus miners income.
EG breaking the binary rule of actual sharable units that effect everything

but hey. those that want to play "dont worry let generation MMCXL sort it out". maybe you not get involved in any discussion and unsubscribe from the forum if you dont want to get involved in any discussion about the current and future progress of bitcoin

and no. dont reply that altnet routers hubs will 'pay' miners. as thats just advertising another network that wants bitcoin to fail

- Nobody knows what will happen to Bitcoin after 100 years lol, but one thing is for sure, the exact number of Bitcoin in circulation will never be 21m.
- Miners will most probably continue mining, without them transactions cannot reach your wallet.
- No, the 21m total supply cannot be changed (that's the least we know in this current timeline) but maybe in the future when Bitcoin is nearing the maximum mined supply, someone could change Bitcoin's protocol to extend the maximum supply to continue incentivize the miners with the block rewards.

-Total coins wont be in complete numbers but 2140 is something a very far years for us to presume on what would happen.
-Miners would live through fees as always specially if the price of Bitcoin soar up on those years.
-No, they would lost up in void if those coins wont be accessed by anybody.21M supply is fixed and never be changed.

After the whole supply of bitcoin has been mined nothing else will happen, that will just mean that we reached out the end of the subsidy the miners were given for securing the network.

That will depend on what the miners decide to do at the time, by the time we reach that date the reward would have decreased so much already that most likely they would only think of it as a small bonus instead of their main form to maintain their operations.

The supply of bitcoin will never increase and taking away the coins of those that lost them is not an option either.

Bitcoin will be depleted in the mines in 2140 and there is another 120-year range to reach it. the impact if bitcoins are mined for the crypto market and investment is that the block size will continue to grow, in this case users will get cheaper transaction fees. However, this condition will make it difficult for miners because the BTC reward when it is mined is no longer there and only relies on Transaction fees. this will also make Bitcoin more scarce, because all bitcoins have been mined successfully, an increase in bitcoin prices will certainly occur.

Depleted in the mines?


There is a 120 range? ?


Mining bitcoins makes blocks grow? ? ?


Why will they get cheaper transaction fees? ? ? ?

 ???

Nonsense. Just more signature ad nonsense.

<ignore>

Once all 21 million coins have been mined, miners will no longer be incentivised by being rewarded with Bitcoin for every block mined. It is likely that once all Bitcoins have been mined, miners will rely on transaction fees.

If all 21 million bitcoin's be mined, the miners will remain on the reward of transaction fee. The price of Bitcoin will go very high and the miners will solely depend on every transaction made.
What if a hard-fork is made, will it extend the total supply of Bitcoin in somewhat manner or it has nothing really to do with the Bitcoin blockchain, cause this is being the next thing that is being expected or which has been done like the BCH which was one done because of the rapid increase in the price of Bitcoin.
Well, I don't really know the technicalities of the hard-fork on Bitcoin, but I do know that Bitcoin will be very expensive as the holders will keep hold on it, and demand will increase, so will the transaction fee increase alongside.

The price of bitcoin will continue to rise even though mining is still active, if 21 million has been used up in mining then the price will skyrocket and get out of control, this is a passion for us to continue to hold bitcoin and make it a long-term investment because with 1 btc we store in cold wallet then we have the opportunity to become rich people.

Under the current situation, no, but fee revenue for the miners is currently going low, and might keep going lower. For long-term security, and the system's sustainability, block rewards + fee revenue must be high. Developers can't control fee revenues per block, but they can propose for an extension of the block reward.

there will be some very horrendous events in the future if 21 million bitcoins have been mined. When all the bitcoin supply has been mined, bitcoins will become scarce and will eventually result in very high price increases.
to reach the maximum supply of bitcoin will take a very long time, some experts say that bitcoin will end mined in 2140, it seems we who are alive today will not witness the events of the last bitcoin being mined.

Beautiful explanations by few of the guys here. I really loved the first reply on the thread which explained everything from top to bottom. So many facts are cleared today about the bitcoin. I just wish that whoever takes over the crypto after hundred years will have another infrastructure with upgrades in the mining operations or I’m also thinking that proof of work might just work in completely different way by that time. One thing is for sure that if crypto world sees dropped bitcoin numbers then gradually the prices will rise too. Even the guy who held bitcoin since 2009 would not be around by next 80-90 years. So many bitcoins will be lost by those means. So fundamentally these things can’t be judged.

We wont know on what would happen in next 120+ years to come which i dont really stress out myself on minding on how miners would make out profits if overall supply had been mined.

For sure they would really still be making money out of fees and speaking on what are the things would happen if all supply been mined? Which means that bitcoin did still able to survive for

100 years which presumably that it is been adopted to survive that for long which i couldnt able to picture out its actual value for that time.