Bitcoin Forum

In year 2009, 1.1 million bitcoins are mined which is 5.24% of the 21 million bitcoin that can be mine in the system. Today, 13 years after the first set of mined bitcoin there are already 19.19 million bitcoins in existence or 91.38% of the total bitcoin. Which means that 1.8 million bitcoins (8.57%) are left to be mine, if you are wondering when will all bitcoins be mined, professionals says that it will take another 120 (more or less) years to mine the remaining millions because of bitcoin halving. Bitcoin halving happens about every 4 years, the Bitcoin block reward that usually get by the miners are cut in half.

so, what are your thoughts when all Bitcoins are mined?

Miners receive two rewards. The first is the reward for the block mined, the second is transaction fee. Gradually, the transaction fee is replacing the block reward.

Nobody knows what would happen after one century, that is over a hundred years. But if all bitcoin are mined, that would not negatively affect bitcoin in any way.

Years before this point, it should already be evident how much Bitcoin would function without mining rewards. Infact, within the next decade, over 99% of the total Bitcoin supply would have been mined already, leaving the final 1% to be spread out over a ~century. What this means is that the network would shape up how exactly it would function without any more coinbase rewards.

On chain; it would function as designed, miners would earn only from transaction fees as a form of incentive.
This could lead to a bulk of transactions occuring off chain, but that remains to be seen.

I won't have any thoughts when all the bitcoins are mined... because then I'll be dead for a long time. Unless something miraculous happens, of course! :D

Since the block reward is halved every roughly 4 years, in a decade or two we'll already see transaction fees taking over as the main incentive for miners. After that happens, the block reward will start playing a secondary role in mining incentives, and gradually will become irrelevant.

Miners will continue to mine after the last bitcoins are received as incentive because at that time they will be getting mostly paid in transaction fees.

So, basically, everything will continue in a similar way. Tick tock, another block.

Since it's estimated that we'll mine all bitcoins in 2140 I won't be around to have any thoughts on the matter ::)

Even if they're wrong and somehow it's all mined 50 years earlier, I'll still be dead, so I won't care anymore.
What about 100 years earlier? I'll be either very rich by that time or very poor and depressed, hopefully raising my grandchildren. Bitcoin is either going to be dead or a world reserve currency by the time it's mined out so it's go big or go home.

I have no thoughts by that time because it's likely that I'm already dead when it happens.

But too many discussions about this, miners job will be the one to confirm transactions and no longer mining them.

As much as this could be accurate, I expect something more of a stabilisation in price of bitcoin and ahoukdnit come to that with miners depending on reward from what they get off transaction fees, how is that going to be enough to keep them at there job and maintaining the nines.

Like, we are going to have a lot of bitcoin users upto 70-80% of world population hypothetically. Now transactions are given preferences based on fees and then, it is hoped that these fees be minute enough to allow swift transactions in a time of stabilised price. How then do miners gets to benefit from fees without taking advantage of processing swift transactions based on higher fees?

Time would tell for sure but, the mining industry offers some stability and it needs to work itself through these dynamics in the cryptosphere.

Sometimes I didn't think too much ahead of time that even we didn't know if we still exist.  But if we've come to that point, it might technically, all miners can be rewarded through transaction fees and not from newly minted coins.  Imagine how much the cost per transaction fee on that time.

Anyway, just sharing this and it could be worth reading if you're interested.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Controlled_supply

....and listen to this song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0ltYApM_tk).

Anyhow we won't be here to find what will happen when the entire bitcoins were mined. The limited supply is always the best thing with bitcoin. After a century we'll have much demand for bitcoin than the present. This will keep the demand growing with time against the limited supply which can't be produced anymore. So, the transaction fee will make big contribution to the miners as they'll continue to be the key players in the market.

The best thing about the moment when the last coin will be mined is that people would finally stop asking what will happen, when the last coin will be mined.

If you look at Bitcoin's supply chart, most coins will be mined by 2030. So it would be another 110 years for technically all coins mined, but practically the fresh coins will become a tiny part of available supply in the market. We already saw how leavenings affect the price, I expect that to be the case for the next 10-15 years, but with each halvening the effect will be smaller and smaller, so the corresponding cycles will have smaller gap between the top and the bottom. Bitcoin will become less volatile.

maybe bitcoin will be more valuable and the turnover of buying and selling will be wider and better.

especially if there are more and more enthusiasts or investors, surely bitcoin will increase in price.

So what happens to the miners?

When the last Bitcoin has been mined and there are no new Bitcoins, the Bitcoin mining process will be completed.

Even if the supply of Bitcoin has run out, Bitcoin miners can still profit from Bitcoin. Because Bitcoin transactions that occur on the blockchain network will require a series of verifications. So, the role of the miner will later shift as the party verifying the transaction.

Bitcoin fees will be pretty much expensive and doesn't worth if you made small transaction, I think before all Bitcoin are mined, everyone already adopt Lightning network.

Theoretically Bitcoin price should be worth for at least one million due to miner doesn't any mining reward and people who use Bitcoin will need to pay higher fee, which make Bitcoin even more scarcer. But we're currently have mined more than 80% of all Bitcoin, we don't need to wait until 2140 to see what's the next will happen to Bitcoin.

The adoption of LN is faster than we know and I think Twitter will have something to do with it. Everyone will be on board when all other social media sites are going to also adopt crypto. Making transactions on BTC will still be cheaper because of LN despite all coins being mined.

Mining will not stop even if all BTC is already mined, they still can mine transactions.
I'm still up to believing the truth is stranger than what we imagine though which miners are going to be regulated with a license required.

It's not a matter of should it come to that, but when it comes to that.
About how it keeps them at their jobs, I talked about only few transactions occuring on chain, most of which expected to be large transactions, while the bulk of transactions occur off chain at little or no fees.
This of course is just a hypothesis, and there are many more of such out there.

Miners already process transactions based on priority or higher fees; the higher the feerate paid, the closer the transaction is to the tip of the mempool.
What exactly do you mean by swift transactions?

That will be thought about by the next generation after us, because if Bitcoin still exists and spreads throughout the world more then there will be those who want to dedicate their knowledge to think about this and implement things that can have a better impact on Bitcoin like what is happening now, but what it is? will only be known later by the next generation

Why think about what physically none of us now existing will not wait. Theoretically, you can think about and speculate about this, but I believe that there are more important things at the moment, the solution of which is better to deal with. Therefore, I will say that you don't need to fill your head with unnecessary thoughts. When all bitcoin are mined, the world will have time to change more than once, and most likely, the attitude towards this event will also change several times.

Based on market mechanisms, if all bitcoin are mined, then the supply of it will be severely limited. If interest in btc by that time continues and grows, then everyone will want to have bitcoin in their pocket (or part, or part of part), therefore, demand will increase and lead to a multiple increase in price. I can't say for sure whether this will be the case, but there is potential for multiple growth. Which will be appreciated by our descendants. :)

Of course bitcoin will be increasingly scarce because there is no bitcoin that can be mined anymore. Bitcoin has spread to all users and some bitcoins are also buried in wallets left by their owners. This will make the price of bitcoin more expensive, but this speaks of the future 120 years from now and we who live in this era of course no longer exist. our descendants will experience it. I don't know what bitcoin will look like in the future, it will probably be more hype than it is today and adoption may have spread all over the world.

It will take a long time to be mined all Bitcoins by the miners. And after mining all Bitcoins the miners will only get the transection fees. Then Bitcoin price will pump more because no coin will be mined in that time.

The price of bitcoin will increase and become a rare item that not everyone can buy in its entirety. Also, about 120 more years won't allow us to enjoy all the bitcoins we have, even if we only have 10 bitcoins, unless we sell all bitcoin we have.

Maybe only our descendants will enjoy bitcoin while we all certainly can no longer see what bitcoin will look like. For those 30 years old, maybe we only have around 30-40 years or even 50 years left to see bitcoin developments. Meanwhile, our children must have grown up by then and will continue what we started. That's even if we teach them about bitcoin.

None of us will probably be alive in 120 years, so the question is completely meaningless - it will be as it will be and we will not be able to influence it. What is more important is that 99% of all BTC will be mined in about ten years, and why should we even worry about that 1% that won't mean too much? I would therefore focus on what will happen with the halvings 2024&2028, and then on 99% mined BTC as some kind of achievement.

This question has been asked quite a lot of times in the past already and there can't be any definite answers as to what will happen then, which is quite a long time from now, neither would i even want to worry myself with what will happen then as i'd prolly not be here to experience it, the only definite answer is that miners would not get new Bitcoins as rewards for mining a block, thus Bitcoin's supply will cease, meaning there will only be demand and that could prolly mean a huge appreciation in price. Having said that, my thoughts are with what will happen to Bitcoin whilst i can experience it, i'd really love to see and enjoy Bitcoin mass adoption and see more governments accept the network in their shores.

There is a huge possibility that all of us are goners by that time but if Bitcoin is greatly successful in that time, I think miners as stated on the Bitcoin whitepaper will be paid by the transaction fee, so I think by that time, Bitcoin will be widely used that the transaction fee reward is bigger than the initial 50 BTC reward per block.  The government will acknowledge Bitcoin as money and will be used as a country-reserved fund just like gold.


I do not think that it is completely meaningless since the question triggers our imagination and speculation.  Having good thoughts on the future of Bitcoin will motivate us to pursue it even more.  Reading different positive replies although we know that it is just speculation somehow will put us at ease especially when we are holding and plan to accumulate Bitcoin more.  The question and positive answer somehow create an illusion of security that somehow what we are doing right now will not be in vain.

in my opinion, when all bitcoins are mined, of course there are 3 factors, namely. the first, the price of bitcoin will be as it is today.
the second, the price of bitcoin will go down. and the third. the price of bitcoin will be higher, because if the supply of bitcoin runs out, the price of bitcoin will be very high. and what causes the price of bitcoin to be high, namely, the many bitcoin holders, buyers and enthusiasts.

Way before that happens we will get to experiment the miners processing transactions for a very small block reward and depending almost exclusively on the fees paid by each transaction.

In my opinion this will be the last test to see if bitcoin is indeed viable long term, if the miners can still keep their operations ongoing under those circumstances then bitcoin will keep on existing for a long time, if not then the miners will have to figure out how to become way more efficient if they want to remain in business.

If it makes you (and some others) happy, I have nothing against such things keeping you busy, while at the same time some other, much more important things pass under your radar. People who live in some kind of imagination and imagine what will happen in 100 years have a hard time dealing with reality, in other words, they run away from it.

Just like you said, it's just an illusion because our time is now, and such a distant future belongs to other people. I think I'm not wrong about what I'm doing now, and what other people will think about it when I'm gone one day, I really don't care.

I always thought that btc will just rise continuously the more supply has been mined out but I now realized that maybe you are right because many miners are for sure going to quit on mining bitcoin once the mining reward gets lower and that has a negative effect in bitcoin.

The network will become weaker. I think this can affect the trust of the btc supporters, making them sell their btc and switch out to other more stronger coins but we shouldn't overthink this for now as that would take a long time to happen. At the present time, it's still safe for us to accumulate more btc and then hodling it because there are more bull runs that can come in our way.

A whole century (i.e 100+years) is quite a long period of time and anything can happen, because to be frankly speaking, nobody knows what exact can happen to Bitcoin in that long period of time, but one thing that is certain is that there will likely be an increase in price, more adoption, as more countries might have legalized it as a legal tender to be used as a easy and fast means of payment just like the speed of light.

But the truth of the matter is, nobody knows what will happen in the next 100yrs, so of what use will it be worrying over a future you can't change

This has been talked about before, there are still people paying a good sum of money for transactions, considering how much money is moving everyday, the mining rewards could be basically nothing at this point, and that means people wil lbe able to still keep on mining everyday and there will be still some profits to be made.

This isn't really that much of a science, its just basic thing, if you are getting a service, then you will have to pay for it, miners are bringing a service and that means we as people in bitcoin will have to pay them, it could be a lot, it could be very little, it could be anything, maybe we will find a better way until then, but it will be basically just paying the miners from our pockets instead of mining rewards.

I wont be minding or making myself get stressed on thinking on what would happen if all bitcoins are mined consider it would happen on year 2140+ as far i know or i might be wrong which is something that we shouldnt really be thinking over.
To presume out that miners arent able to make money on that time then they would be mostly be expecting on getting revenue or profits on pushing transactions or confirmation on the network.

Come to mind that if Bitcoin do still exist into that time then its safe to presume that its value is already high.Sadly, for us on this year adopters or enthusiast wont really be
alive on that time.No one knows on what would happen in the future.

How long until 2140, we won't live lol. We don't know even Bitcoin will exist or not. Technology moving faster always. Bitcoin would be history or would be king. People can't buy the whole Bitcoin at that time though they can buy Satoshi. It should be too pricy and miners will have to earn only from transaction fees since there won't be mining any of Bitcoin. People will think how stupid our previous generation those who didn't buy Bitcoin even if it was cheap if Bitcoin exist. A lot of threads have been created regarding this matter but hard to predict when we won't live.

Thinking of the future of Bitcoins until all of its coins are mined gives me two separate path.  One is, Bitcoin being globally accepted as alternative payment, so basically the transaction per block would increase so much that it is enough to make Bitcoin mining a profitable venture.  While, the other is Bitcoin being replaced by other cryptocurrency and lost its dominance, and is half-dead  because of its slow blockchain upgrade implementation.

No matter how we think about the future of Bitcoin, we should at least take advantage of the current market price situation.

I haven't thought that far because no one's age knows
but if I get to the point where bitcoins have been mined out, the bitcoin price will probably be higher because there will be a lot of demand but i won't assume that far, because as I said before I'm not sure until 2140

We are all dead into those people who had been engaging on Bitcoin as of this moment.Next 100 years isnt something that could able to reach out.Just like the rest been saying, how you would really be putting up

some care or being mindful on things which you do know that you wont really be existing on that time? Just let the future generations do know on what would it looks like.

If all Bitcoins are mined then miners will really be making money on confirming transactions same as those people been saying above.
There's no other way that they could make money but only through this.

There really is no other way to make money for miners when Bitcoin is fully mined.
The miners will turn into transaction verification interpreters.
Every bitcoin user who makes a transaction will be charged a verification fee.
Miners will benefit from verification fees made by bitcoin users.

The initial verification fee gain is small compared to the results of mining bitcoin, but there is no other way to make money for miners. But as time goes on Bitcoin transactions will definitely increase and verification fees will also increase.

It is possible that bitcoin in the future when all bitcoins have been mined, bitcoin transactions will be more sophisticated and more frequent, this will be a big advantage for miners as bitcoin transaction verification interpreters.

I agree with Lucius, I've never thought about it either because we simply won't live to that point and it's pointless to predict such a distant future. In those 100 years, hundreds of things will change and we won't have any basis for prediction, what I call an illusion instead. Bitcoin is only 14 years old and 10 years ago no one could have predicted bitcoin would become as big as it is today, so never think about anything further. Let's focus on the present and predict the near future, which will be more helpful than us.

My thoughts when all Bitcoins are mined are probably the same even when all Bitcoins aren't mined yet. I mean, the things that could possibly happen when all Bitcoins are mined will probably already happen when almost all Bitcoins are mined.

Around 4 years before the block reward reaches 0, the block reward is already as low as 1 Satoshi. 4 years prior, the block reward is 2 Sats. Another 4 years, 4 Sats. And so on.

But we're all probably still alive when the block reward is just around an mBTC or 0.001BTC. That's around 45 years from now. My thoughts will be around profitability or sustainability. Will mining still be sustainable when the block reward is just 0.0015BTC and the proceeds from transaction fees remain significantly small?

Once these 21 million pieces of Bitcoin are mined, most of the network will operate the same as it is today. However, there is one important difference which is that Bitcoin miner rewards will be more expensive.

so don't worry if the bitcoins run out in the mine, after all it's still a long time.
it's better to focus on what we are doing now, if you invest in crypto/bitcoin, focus on continuously monitoring the market.

well this will enter altcoins  ;D

but Surely Bitcoin transaction fees will skyrocket and this is what we hate in this network.

but we could expect changes in the long run.


yeah who really cares about that?  when this will take another tenths of years before this finally comes to happen.

Well this is what truly miners are waiting , to have their piece of cake that they are cooking for  years and years now .
Hope that this will not bring big chunks of adding in transacting as this will hurt our butts in the future.

it is actually what we all must do  now mate , watch the market and let it flows to our years in this market, we must not worry about the future because this will be depending on how we will keep our investments over the years.

this actually a simple answer  ;D ;D but very true.

but in my opinion the bitcoin will pretty much still exist maybe there will be debate when the supply is near to the limit and maybe there will be fork of bitcoin that pop off. but the miner will still be there to receive the transaction fee.

This discussion has been over the forum lot of times and we are worrying about what will happen after a century a period where we can't predict anything at all.The miners rewards are transaction fees and block rewards at the time and till 2140 they will be earning mining rewards even halfed it will be worth it depending on the price levels at that time.

Mining for bitcoins will exponentially get harder the more bitcoins are mined. As of the moment it is estimated that as you said, it will take more than a century before all of bitcoins are mined. In the event that the last bitcoin is harvested, price will shoot up exponentially, as it will get even more scarce, exchanges will impose huge tax tariffs for trading bitcoin and that is to be expected, they have to get money from somewhere anyway. Operation-wise, nothing much will change about how bitcoin is operating, although I presume transactions will take a hell of a lot of time to go through.

Yes, everyone will be dead. But, we have responsibility to think of the future generation. On such stance surely we are supposed to think how things could work then onwards.

Once the entire bitcoins were mined, the network fee on every transaction will be allocated for the miners. Forever the miners were in need to run the bitcoin network. Being the backbone, failure of miners will end up the network and such scenario won't happen.

You are absolutely right. Miners will continue receiving reward in the shape of transaction fee even after all the Bitcoins are mined and as the Bitcoin adaption grows over time, their revenue will increase but transaction speed will be much higher compared to what it is now due to technological development. The scarcity due to no more supply of Bitcoin will increase the price to new highs. This is my opinion based on how I perceive future of Bitcoin and thing can happen totally opposite. It is better to do your own research before taking any investment decision.
 

How you can sure their revenue on transaction fees is higher than mine Bitcoin? what if there's not many people trade Bitcoin and they just use 1 sat/byte since they're not in hurry? those miners wouldn't earn good amount money. Solving a block and get a reward on halving event is more profitable than just confirming the transaction. Again we still don't know what the future would be.

Nobody can predict anything with 100% certainty about Bitcoin because it is extremely volatile and unpredictable currency, the lesson we learn from the history of Bitcoin since it was launched that it always comes out with surprise & plays out what most of the market participants don't expect.

We are just portraying possible scenario & what is likely to happen after all Bitcoins are mined. Miners have important role to run Bitcoin's ecosystem securely & verifying the legitimacy of transactions, they should continue receiving reward.

When bitcoins start to run out of mined, the mining process will be completed, meaning that there will be no more Bitcoin incentives to be earned by Miners and will only function as trades. However, if it is associated with economic principles, when bitcoin is scarce and increasingly difficult to obtain, there will be a very large price spike.

This means Bitcoin will most likely become an important asset once mining is complete, even more valuable than it is today. For this reason, it is very appropriate if today we start to collect them slowly, because when bitcoins are getting scarce it will be very difficult for us to invest, the concept of economics will usually be appropriate if it is associated with similar cases.

I supported what Sayeds56 said because Bitcoin can be problematic and also be incredible at some point but one thing remains, it will always come out strong.
After all, the 21 million Bitcoins are mined I also believe the miner's reward/revenue to be higher because miners may be selective with the transaction they execute, and other for some people to have their transaction confirmed they may choose to pay a ridiculous fee.
Thats my opinion about what I think may happen when all BTC is mine.

Why should we care what will happen in 120 years? will we live until then? Currently, We have mined more than 19 million bitcoins and our mission is to own how many of the 19 million bitcoins are in circulation, that is the most important thing to think about and do right now.

CPI will be announced tonight but we are facing a bigger problem that is the collapse of FTX, if FTX declares bankruptcy will cause another panic in the market. It will be an opportunity or a risk depending on each person's perspective.

Indeed, collapse of FTX is a big issue which has shaken the whole crypto market and it will continue making headlines in news media until it is acquired by Binance or any other big investor, but I am pretty sure eventually market will digest it. Initially CZ was planning to acquire FTX but according to latest news reports he seems to be backing out now because he thinks that liquidity crunch is so huge which is beyond his control.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/09/binance-backs-out-of-ftx-rescue-leaving-the-crypto-exchange-on-the-brink-of-collapse.html

If the mining rewards continue to exist and all miners are motivated to mine up all Bitcoins, there must be something coming up for miners to continue. Otherwise the game is soon to the end and everyone would feel empty and lost. That's the key point.

The FTX issue has already caused some panic in the market which I believe everybody has ready know ever since CZ tweeted about the silly decision of SBF will technically cause the bankruptcy of FTX and from what I read Tether law enforcement which will be the US has ordered USDT to freeze 46.3 million USDT owned by FTX.
After combining all this and the issue happening with the economy some people believe the CPI data could cause a risk occasion.

This is not the first time the market has seen an exchange crash, we will overcome them all. About FTX and binance, I think this is a battle between two big players in the market, big fish eat small fish. no accident or trying to help as CZ claimed.

Tether has locked SBF assets at the request of law enforcement, I doubt that the government will use this as an excuse to impose crypto regulation faster than we think. The bad things will not stop at investors losing, we will be subject to government regulation.

After this issue matter I believe will give some chance of buying low for investors that have some capital kept in preparation for the bottom price that always happens during the last 2 months of the bearish market. What I fear most is the law enforcement agency's next step next year just like we see when the issue of ICO scams happen hand in hand back in the years 2018-2019 if I could remember correctly.
Just like you have said, we should expect a speedy crypto regulation

last mined coins would be in 2140

before that peoples main thought should be if they dont have kids yet, would they. and if they did what would their great great great grandkids be like. would they care about bitcoin or just live happily/snobby on the profits of their great great grandparents

The last BTC will be mined in approx. 2140. But the change is not going to happen overnight. There are a lot of factors that may change within this period, giving miners time to adjust to the new rewarding system and for the BTC network to remain secure. In more than 100 years from now, it seems likely that all these issues will have been solved by Bitcoin Core developers and the wider cryptocurrency community.

I think that cryptocurrency and Bitcoin in particular he is not longer be mining the way we are thinking so from my understanding I think that mining's of cryptocurrency is something that is being centered, so from my own understanding of mining of cryptocurrency I don't think that the individual as well can mine a Bitcoin sayings the value has been recognised for The society

I do not think that there is problem with the system that pays miners from tx fee.  I believe it is already happening, Miners compete for the new block and mine the block together with the tx fee.  There is no need for the miners to adjust, they just need to point their miners and hash away, solving blocks and mining tx fees. 

I think by that time, the scalability issue will be solved.

It already happens, yes, you're correct.

The thing is that the transition from block reward to transaction fees will be a gradual one. In two or three halvings more we'll see that the transaction fees will be way more important relative to the block reward right now.

Soon the block reward will be less than one Bitcoin, and then transaction fees will look very interesting to miners. From then onwards block rewards will be less and less attractive, and tx fees will be the actual main component of the reward

When all bitcoins are mined, the volatility may not be so large. At that time, everyone should be paying with cryptocurrencies. Although you may not be able to witness the day when Bitcoin is mined at that time, our children will witness it for us.

When all bitcoins are mined, the price will rise a wave. Will the volatility of Bitcoin decrease in the future? At that time, only my children or descendants can witness. I just can't see Bitcoin being fully mined.

Seems pretty optimistic, giving the state that bitcoin is not really usable with everyday payments. The transaction speed is a minimum of 10 Minutes. But still we can hope that most people by then at least own bitcoin as a store of wealth.

It's really hard to imagine how the world is going to look like in a 100 years. The best indication would be too look back 100 years and see how life has changed since then. There was no internet, no computers or even travelling by plane. The world looked totally different and where not connected like they are today. With this in mind I would expect the world to grow even closer together when all the bitcoins are mined. Hyper speed travelling and super fast internet is going to be common all around the world, and for that it would be great to have an internet currency as bitcoins that can be used all around the world very quickly. In my opinion bitcoin will remain the number one crypto coin in the world and a much higher price is going to reflect that. Unfortunately all of us are not going to be around at that time anymore, but hopefully our grandchildren will enjoy your mined bitcoins by then. 

It's going to be a gradual process.

Every halving we get half the amount of new coins, so we're living through this really.

The new coins will be very few in a decade (3 halvings), and even just now there are less than 10% of the coins to be mined.