Bitcoin Forum

Hello everyone,

Unlike fiat currency like the U.S. dollar – as the Federal Reserve can simply decide to print more banknotes – Bitcoin’s supply is finite: BTC has a maximum supply embedded in its design, of which roughly 89 percent had been reached in April 2021. It is believed that Bitcoin will run out by 2040, despite more powerful mining equipment. This is because mining becomes exponentially more difficult and power-hungry every four years, a part of Bitcoin’s original design. Because of this, a Bitcoin mining transaction could equal the energy consumption of a small country in 2021.
I found these topics in an article, I hope the opinion of experts in this regard.

If eventually all bitcoin have been mined in the later future, what did you think about the bitcoin in circulation, that the mined coins will all be burned? No,  but rather be in circulation and this will spike high the demand for it as no more new coin is being mined and the ones in circulation will definitely be in high demand, while by then having bitcoin would have been as precious as being in procession of a precious stone, the prize would have been so high in value and it relevance would have been more generally acceptable than ever.

And by that 2040 as suggested, it will do you good if before then you've been in possession of your own bitcoin because if the mining reached limit, then the ones in circulation will be highly demanded for regardless of how much.

No.  This is not correct.
New bitcoins will continue to be created for more than another 100 years.


No. This is not correct.
It is because the amount of new bitcoin that is allowed to exist in each new block of the blockchain is cut in half (and rounded down to the nearest satoshi) every 4 years.

Mining can become more difficult, or it can become easier.  The difficulty of mining is determined only by the total global amount of hashpower that is being applied to the process. Mining does not become more power-hungry. It actually has continued to use less and less power per hash over time.  It's just that more people have discovered the opportunity, and so, therefore, more equipment is being operated.


No. This is not correct.
The mining process accomplishes MUCH more than just processing a single transaction.  It is disingenuous to try to apply to a single transaction the entire power used for securing and maintaining a global permissionless economic system.


You found a BAD article.  Go, learn more and talk less.

indeed there are only 21 million Bitcoin coins that can be mined. So what if it's over? This is, of course, the question raised.
According to research by blockchain.com, 18.89 million Bitcoins have been mined, and they are already circulating in the market. It took almost 12 years for Bitcoin to sell nearly 19 million coins.

Apparently as time goes by, less and less Bitcoins can be mined. By the 2030s, 97% of Bitcoins were already on the market, but another 3% would still take about 110 years to go down.

If Bitcoin becomes scarcer and then runs out, some investors believe that its price will actually go up. "What's more, Bitcoin is said to never really run out according to its enthusiasts, because there will always be someone willing to sell their Bitcoin," so bitcoin will always exist.

No the world is not running out bitcoins. Everybody knew from the start that there is only a limited amount of Bitcoins to be mined. That is also what makes bitcoins so valuable. If we could just create new bitcoins out of thin air the price would never be as high as it is today. Being independent from governments that create the money supply is what makes cryptos so attractive to most investors. The maximum limit of Bitcoins is a great thing and we don't need to worry about it. The higher the price will be, the smaller the denominations we trade in. 1 BTC could be worth 1 million USD and we would still use it.

Sell? I guess you meant mine.


Well that's logical, as if demand keeps going up while supply is limited of course price will go up.


What's even more important is that satoshi is the smallest Bitcoin denomination so 21 million BTC can be divided into  2,100,000,000,000,000 satoshis which should be enough for quite a few years. And who knows, if needed we may get even smaller denominations so no worries about "running out of bitcoin".

'Bitcoin' didn't sell anything. There is no entity called Bitcoin. 19 million (or more precisely 18.9 million) coins have been awarded as mining rewards. Many of those have been sold and changed hands, even multiple times. There are also addresses whose coins have never moved. Those units that we know belong to satoshi have never been sold, for example. And let's not forget the million dollars worth of BTC that are forever locked in addresses whose private keys have been lost.     

We'll only "run out" of bitcoin if it's the case that we already reach the maximum supply cap, and at the same time not a single bitcoin is being sold in the market — which is obviously NOT going to happen. Everyone's bitcoin has a price — whether it'd be the current price or slightly above it, $100k, $1m, etc.

Even after the whole bitcoin gets mined 1BTC = 1BTC they will still be smaller and big transaction circulating in the market. People will not stop buying products with bitcoin because the whole bitcoin in the market has been mined. And remember Dollar is not the only currency in the world. Another currency (Fiat) can regain its value, and its worth to bitcoin will be better than Dollar - tagged to bitcoin price rate. For example; the price of bitcoin in Dollar is different from Euros and pounds. The more US keeps minting Dollar notes bitcoin price will keep soaring high at that time when it'll be scarce I think the price will skyrocket.

yep it may taking long years now and when the mining needs to be more powerful and yet the bitcoin to be mined is limited .

if you could be so kind to share that article here? because having said that you have read this then best to share this to us.

but this would be not a problem because the circulating supply ?  will always be there to be increasing in Value .

So, you think that is the advantage of fiat because it has an unlimited supply? I think that was a disadvantage and that can cause for the fiats to be less valuable. Powerful mining equipment doesn't have the ability to increase the supply of btc but that can only make the supply drop faster because I think mining will now become faster the better the equipment have been used.

You said something about every 4 years, I guess you are talking about the btc halving? but does halving makes the mining process less difficult? I have read this last time upon doing research on something. The total energy that btc consume looks big but what about the total energy used when they create a fiat?

To say that we can be running out of Bitcoin is not a very accurate thing to say...what can happen is that there comes a time when there will be no new BTC that can be minted or mined as it has a specific number of coins that we can say as maximum...nothing more as it is fixed. So what can happened by that time then? In case Bitcoin remains the way it is now in terms of adoption and usage then most probably the price can go so high and a satoshi can be so valuable...by that time people will be talking on satoshi as the basic unit of Bitcoin.

I’ve seen people ask about this before in the sense of will bitcoin run out because of so many millionaires and billionaires buying it up and making it next to impossible to find. I personally don’t think this will become a legitimate issue any time soon. Maybe eventually down the road, hard to say though.

I do not know why normal people are so worried or think it is a big deal. I know scarcity plays an important role but that for me is macro economics. If I wanted to buy $1000 dollars of Bitcoin today, compared to 10 years ago, it would actually be easier because there is more people selling and more exchanges and more liquidity.

I understand that for institutionals it could be a problem but for most of us, it has no effect. Just whether we get 10,000 BTC for $100 or now 0.0025 BTC

Any time soon? more like ever. What are the possibilities that literally not a single person is willing to sell some amount of bitcoin? Literally zero. As demand soars with little supply, the price will increase, but there will always be some bitcoin that's going to get sold. At what price, is the question.

I think bitcoin will continue to exist even though it cannot be mined because after mining runs out there will be a new story for bitcoin, namely buying and selling bitcoin and with more and more people looking for bitcoin there will always be transactions, and it will appear that bitcoin will never run out

need to be corrected, according to Blockchain.com bitcoin will run out in the mine forecast in February 2140 and of course it will still take a long time and we will not reach that year.
Mining is currently difficult due to some regulations regarding bitcoin mining because bitcoin mining consumes a lot of energy and is a contributor to the greenhouse effect that makes the earth warmer. But with increasingly modern technology, some bitcoin mining companies use renewable and environmentally friendly energy.
Bitcoins will become scarcer if all supplies are successfully mined and will no longer be able to be minted.

markets dont need all the supply(coins in circulation) in market orders. so dont worry about supply
and if bitcoin gets more popular markets wont need more coins. instead they will just sell less coins for more price

in 2012
there were 10.5mill coins in circulation
3 main exchanges.
and each market order line was between 1btc-1000btc
average trade order $6-$6000 (1btc=$6)

in 2022
there are 19mill coins in circulation (~40% more coins in circulation)
30 main exchanges.
and each market order line was between 0.001btc-1btc (1000x less coins on market orderlines)
average trade order $40-$40,000 (1btc=$40k)

what we may see in 2032
there are 20.3mill coins in circulation
300 main exchanges.
and each market order line was between 0.0001btc-0.1btc
average trade order $260-$260,000 (1btc=$2.6m)

Its foolish to try to forecast that far into the future as you're extrapolating based on a relatively short history. Bitcoin is seeing a lot of volatility at the moment and it could easily be supplanted by other government cryptocurrencies. Such a move could even trigger governments to start banning and competitor coins. The main problem for bitcoin right now is an image problem - in many countries the politicians are starting to pick up on how wasteful it is with energy usage and many countries are in the midst of an energy crisis with spiralling costs. At some point soon we may see action take to conserve energy usage and crypto will be a very easy target which the general population will not care about.

im not even forecasting.. that is not the point
you mention about volatility.. (aka price movements) pfft.. not the point

the point is not about price forecasting or anything like that..
its a demonstration about the supply of units of measure
its about the fact that in ancient egypt times they measured gold in tonnes/kg's
in wild west times it was pounds/ounces
in modern times its becoming ounces/grams

its not about forecasting the price. its about explaining how markets measure in less units.

people dont need to buy whole tonnes of gold or KG anymore. (bars/ingots)
now they buy in ounces or grams (coins and dust)
same applies to bitcoin

Where's that article you've found to prove your claims? Share the source link here.

I would like to highlight this statement of yours that "It is believed that Bitcoin will run out by 2040". Incorrect.

Although that it has a finite supply of 21 million BTCs, it'll never mint additional BTCs again. So nope, the world isn't running out BTCs. The demand will simply go higher, thus making BTCs price gonna skyrocket.

Actually the last bitcoin will be mined in 2140 not only 2040 so you might have wrongly posted about it as there is still a century left for that to happen so we are not getting out of btc till that.A century is long period and we can't exactly say what will be the situation at that time like will btc prevail or not.

There are many fake article spreading wrong information about bitcoin and mining procedures but you need to fully understand it yourself or if you have any doubt then ask on this forum and undoubtedly you will get correct information from members.

Bitcoin Maximum Numbers of coins is Fixed at 21 million.
However the supply of bitcoin is not fixed.

Yes, I know that seems off, but here is why it is not.

21 million bitcoins /1 = a usable Supply of 21 million bitcoin
21 million bitcoin  /2 = a usable Supply of 42 million bitcoin pieces
The current lowest onchain # is .00000001 (a satoshi) 8 places to the right of the decimal
21 million bitcoin  is 2.1 quadrillion satoshi

Basically it is a supply increase that can only happen in a virtual world as in a physical world that kind of division would be pointless.

Lightning Network is already moving to a 12 place to the right  of the decimal, creating an even larger supply of sub-satoshis .
In a virtual world of theory , this is no real limit to how far to the right they can go, which means an endless increase of supply while the # of btc stay fixed at a max of 21 million.

The advantage to this for you, is that .01000000 may one day actually be worth $1 million dollars.
But that is depending on Bitcoin developers finding a solution to the government PoW mining bans, so use of btc continues until the banking system starts using LN.

Its been how many years now but still we didn't know how bitcoin was built and especially when it comes mining, i mean for example how it can circulate more coins in order to survive for many year.

 I know it possible but no one talks about it. ???

Wherein we just underestimate bitcoin because of the percentage of mined coins reason people thinking it will running out.

2040 or 2140? I think you read it wrong.
I always believe that the value of each Bitcoin or each satoshi will get higher because of the lesser rewards being received by the miners.
I mean, it should equal the power consumption and a little profit out of it.
If not, then more miners will give up on doing it which means less difficulty and higher income for whoever is left. After every drop of it is mined, there will still be the transaction fees. It's difficult to conclude it now as we cannot see the future.

Indeed, in this mining, solving puzzles with the devices we have, I am personally quite interested.
but there is no reason for me to force myself, there are still many ways to get bitcoin with easier techniques, if you think so maybe the sub mining forum board will be quiet and no one is talking there, those who have started from the beginning certainly won't it will be as difficult as I am now. Maybe you haven't read the halving process.? it's not completely when you think about it, it's difficult to be able to effectively cope with prices / push even the existing supply

Since the bitcoins are limited, there will be no inflation in bitcoins. Also the number of bitcoin will always remain the same (though they may decrease too as some bitcoins are lost due to lose of private keys), which means that the demand will always be on the higher side as compare to the supply.

The world will not run out of bitcoin, however you have to pay more price to buy the bitcoins because the demand of bitcoin is increasing continuously.

Running out by 2040 due to electricity consumption? The difficulty is truly increasing but you should also consider that technology is getting on upgrades so despite the power consumption issue that's always been brought for mining bitcoin, why these articles and people that are against on it don't address other industries that have been consuming more and destroying our natural resources? If it's about running out of bitcoin, add an estimation of 100 more years on it and that shall make the supply limit reach and we're no longer alive by that time.

With all the fact checks and clarification by other members, I think the best thing we could do with this knowledge is to accumulate more. Imagine if it becomes more and more scarce and has become the staple for every country or every person in the world, it will be even more valuable. Best to believe in this because it has been seen ever since the creation of BTC.

First of all, before bitcoins run out in mines maybe I won't be in the world anymore, and won't know or experience new things in the future because technological advances will continue to develop that we don't know about. So I can only enjoy the benefits of bitcoin as long as I exist.
And I think when 21 million bitcoins are actually mined and more users want to use them for transactions or turn them into assets, the bargaining power of the price becomes stronger because there are less available as compared to the market demand. The Bitcoin community is Bullish at a set limit on availability.

Judging from what actually happened the number of Bitcoins available is only 21 million coins worldwide. This number continues to shrink considering the amount that has been mined has reached 18.89 million. So that at least currently only 2.11 million Bitcoins are available. When that time comes, miners can charge high transaction fees for processing transactions of high value or large amounts. Once mined, bitcoin will become an even rarer asset.

Yeah, the effect of limited supply or how the Bitcoin works like the mining rewards or transaction fees from miners is not, so noticeable especially during these days, Bitcoin created that the will stay for long term.
For example, the Bitcoin block halving event on Bitcoin which the rewards per block that being mined is reduced for some period and that is how the supply or difficulty of having Bitcoin generated is slowly as time goes by.

Yes, the number of bitcoins in circulation will only decrease over time. They already say that about six million bitcoins are irretrievably lost for various reasons. However, for all the inhabitants of our planet, several million bitcoins may be enough to use. After all, there are one hundred million satoshis in every bitcoin. If you multiply one million bitcoins by one hundred million, there will be such an amount of Satoshi, which is currently only available in meme-coins. Therefore, I do not see any problem in reducing the number of bitcoins.

Who can guarantee the bitcoin supply limit will run out, because they are constantly traded in the market. Simply put, you own bitcoins and sell them at a high price, bitcoins will keep changing hands and last forever, so will everyone who trades in bitcoins.
We also never know whether the bitcoins owned by Satoshi have been sold or not, because it is very difficult to identify, even though some people say that his bitcoins are still intact. Thus the supply of bitcoins will never decrease, more precisely I think a large demand will make bitcoins increasingly rare and the selling price more valuable.

Bitcoin display, very bad in the article, maybe you need to look for other more sources

Absolutely not.  Even though Bitcoin has a hard cap by design (one small part of its genius), it's not like it's being "burned" out of circulation.  As circulation remains, we won't run out of Bitcoin.  Another thing to consider is fractionation as a whole Bitcoin doesn't need to be owned in order to participate.  Also, these portions of a Bitcoin become more valuable in terms of fiat as Bitcoin increases in value against fiat.