Bitcoin depletion?

[Quantumplation]

No, not infinitely divisible but to destroy every single BitCoin would be like trying to count every atom in this planet, the number is so high that you would have to destroy every BitCoin simultaneously because a single Bit Coin can still be divided another 1 million times if need be.

That still is a pretty hard limit.  I would even go so far as to say "famous last words" as the folks who came up with IPv4 had to deal with the exhaustion of the address space (about 4 billion IP addresses).  Unfortunately the current demand world-wide is about 15-20 billion at the moment, and no end in sight about how many more may eventually be needed, hence IPv6.

Minor note:  Demand isn't 15-20 billion.  There's never been a request to IANA that met it's predefined guidelines that got denied, and there's still a couple subnets left.  We've got a bit to grow to still hit the hard limit of IPv4.  Still, your point is valid, just felt like throwing that out there.

[Bitcoiner]

If Bitcoins become wildly popular, and the money supply in the aggregate becomes worth 1 billion USD, then every 10 nanobits (10 nanobits being the smallest resolution possible with the current scheme) will be worth only 0.0000004761 $USD. 1 USD = 0.021 Bitcoins, or 1 Bitcoin = $47.62

If Bitcoins become worth 100 billion USD, then every 10 nanobits will be worth 0.0000476 USD. This is still only 1/210th of a cent. There is still plenty of resolution here, even without extending the precision. 1 USD = 0.00021 Bitcoins, or 1 Bitcoin = $4762

In short, we are a looooooong way away from this becoming anywhere near a problem. It will be a good problem to have

[barneystinson]

I understand that the number of bitcoins is inherently limited. What happens if someone gets (one way or another) some number of bitcoins and then either loses his wallet to (hard drive crash, hurricane, accidental wipe, death of the owner, whatever). Are these bitcoins lost forever and taken out of circulation? So, finite number of bitcoins going to be infinitely depleted?

I gather that the value of bitcoin will rise as a result. They are also divisible, so we should have bigger supply of smaller parts as a result. But are they infinitely divisible?

There would only be a total of 21M to be created(if Im not mistaken). The question in here is what would happen when the total count reaches its limit.

[Kprawn]

I understand that the number of bitcoins is inherently limited. What happens if someone gets (one way or another) some number of bitcoins and then either loses his wallet to (hard drive crash, hurricane, accidental wipe, death of the owner, whatever). Are these bitcoins lost forever and taken out of circulation? So, finite number of bitcoins going to be infinitely depleted?

I gather that the value of bitcoin will rise as a result. They are also divisible, so we should have bigger supply of smaller parts as a result. But are they infinitely divisible?

There would only be a total of 21M to be created(if Im not mistaken). The question in here is what would happen when the total count reaches its limit.

You will just divide it into smaller units. It is currently 0.00000001 and when the need is there to add smaller units, then the

developers will propose this and code it and the full nodes will decide if they want this change. Once they run this new code

changes, the smaller units will be in affect. Some people send bitcoins to burn addresses to decrease the amount of coins

that would exist and to increase it's value.   .... New coins are added every day too.  

[stompix]

I understand that the number of bitcoins is inherently limited. What happens if someone gets (one way or another) some number of bitcoins and then either loses his wallet to (hard drive crash, hurricane, accidental wipe, death of the owner, whatever). Are these bitcoins lost forever and taken out of circulation? So, finite number of bitcoins going to be infinitely depleted?

I gather that the value of bitcoin will rise as a result. They are also divisible, so we should have bigger supply of smaller parts as a result. But are they infinitely divisible?

There would only be a total of 21M to be created(if Im not mistaken). The question in here is what would happen when the total count reaches its limit.

Nice, necro a 7 year old thread with a question answered 21 million times on this board.