Thank you for that.

That is where the gap in my understanding was!

I had thought that miners were only paid the newly created Bitcoin when they settled a transaction.

And that this would be REPLACED with a fee for service when the last Bitcoin was minted.

Then there is a hole in my understanding some where.

My understanding was that there will be an absolute maximum number of Bitcoins in the system at some date in the future.

After which no more NEW Bitcoins can be created.

That mining is acquiring ONLY newly minted Bitcoins.

That after the last new Bitcoin is 'minted' miners will be paid a fee by those wanting their transactions verified (from what you have previously said).

And that when the last new Bitcoin is 'minted' their will be less incentive for miners to create large 'data centers' (that consume a great deal of power) and compete for the those last newly minted Bitcoins.

Where in that is my understanding inaccurate?

So I was about right then. That the power consumption issue of Bitcoin is due to the number of miners competing for the last new Bitcoins. A temporary phase.

So what is the bottle neck with Bitcoin transaction verification that make it difficult to scale up to the a good proportion of the global population?

It sounds like it is what I have suspected for some time. That it won't be Bitcoin that becomes the true global currency but one of its descendants where the scaling problem has been solved.

So why does the Bitcoin verification system require the puzzle solving that uses so much power?

How exactly does the verification process work with the puzzle?

I have read that this method of verification makes Bitcoin difficult to scale up to truly global system and instead results in increasing transaction processing times.

Or is this simply because the number of Bitcoin users is or was rising faster than the number of node providers?

My understanding was that if you install the bitcoin wallet software then you are automatically part of the verification network?
That was the very foundation of the distributed verification network?
And everyone with a wallet has a copy of the block chain?

My understanding was that mining new Bitcoins was a temporary phase as the supply of Bitcoins rose to its maximum.
Then after that there would be no mining of new Bitcoins.

Because if you have a Bitcoin wallet running on your device then your device contributes to the overall verification of transactions?

The above was not pasted from anywhere.

They are legit questions based on my current understanding of Bitcoin that I have tried to piece together from multiple sources.

I had little doubt that my understanding was inaccurate or incomplete.

Is it the case that Bitcoin consumes an excessive amount of electricity due to the fact that so many are competing for the last of the mined Bitcoins.

I.E. An unnecessary amount of computing power is being applied to settling transactions.

And logically that should end when the last Bitcoin is minded?

And there is no longer any incentive to setup large Bitcoin mining operations?

From then on the price of using Bitcoin will be contributing you own computing power to settling transactions?

And total power consumption by Bitcoin will fall to more reasonable levels similar to our current centralised digital banking services?