Is it possible that number of miners will decrease for a while?

[mezzaluna]

With the recent halving of block rewards, the incentive will be lower than previous for miner. On the other hand, the cost for them will still be same which may not be profitable for a while (I'm not sure about this). If it is true, is it possible that some miners will just leave mining for a while until they get back in a equilibrium or in profit? What fo you think?

Maybe this would just call for some miners to look for a way to upgrade their current setup's since even though the number of blocks being mined is increasing, the need for more Bitcoin is also needed since this is the way that they will gain profit. They will have to sacrifice some time to at least get an upgrade if they want a better profit and I guess that would be the decisions of most users with mining equipment.

[fishbonez11]

Time will come that there will be fewer miners since each year it is getting harder and harder to mine Bitcoin. We all know that it cost a lot to mine and the supply is getting lesser. If a miner has complete set, they can sustain to continue. There is fewer reward miners are getting each year, the only way to avoid lesser reward is to change the coin they are mining. Small miners tend to choose another coin since bitcoin is giving lesser reward compared to other coin.

[DougM]

Oh it's definitely possible, probably until the price goes high enough for bitcoin to be worth mining again. Especially for the small-time miners who has significantly slimmer profit margins compared to the big-time miners. In fact, this is what I assume will happen as it's the most likely one in my opinion. I don't think it's likely for bitcoin to rise in price in the short term.

what is the break even point for miners considered now? I know the cost of electricity is a big variable, but  at 20K+ most would be still be positive?  does that mean more miners are entering the market?

[iTradeChips]

In my opinion, it is really a big possibility that many small scale miners will stop mining, specially if the cost of mining the bitcoin is higher than the profit one would get in selling it. Also if there is no good bitcoin infrastracture within the area so one can sell their bitcoins to fiat currency and use that to pay for the equipment and the electricity, then rest assured even the bigger mining operation will cease. Hopefully it will be good in the near future.

[Sebas.tian]

Most likely this is going to be so in the future unless the price of Bitcoin is really soaring to make it still valuable to mine bitcoins. The cost involve needed to set up a mining rig is very high and if the price of bitcoin does not move along with it in the future some miners would definitely have to drop out since they can't keep up with the cost involved.

It will definitely be in the nearest future. At present, the strength it take to mine Bitcoin has increased drastically compared to these days when Bitcoin was just 2-5 years of age, there is a higher possibility that when things get harder in Bitcoin mining thousands miners won't be able to make their ways up there in terms of mining Bitcoin.

[shield132]

That depends on some factors and what kind of miners you mean. There is a rise in the number of people who mine at home at the moment and that's why GTX1080, RX580 and others are pricy lately. But, when more people join the mining process, the higher the difficulty gets. But, average Joe can only buy miners and GPUs that companies manufacture and here we will the declining number of "at home" miners. Companies like Bitmain, BitFury and others will manufacture better equipment for them (everyone knows how shady Bitmain is), on another hand, mining has turned into commercial business, so, the number of miners will decrease.