Newbie question

[bitcoinnewbie]

Hi, I've just decided to actually get into Bitcoin after reading about it for quite some time, but I was wondering something. I've heard there's more or less 10 million Bitcoins in existence, out of a possible total of 21 million, and that as more are mined the difficulty and costs rise, revenue from mining is more or less break-even now. But assuming there is not a significant increase in users (and demand) for the existing supply of Bitcoins with a corresponding rise in value, won't it eventually hit a situation like post-peak oil, where there is theoretically more to be extracted but it is no longer economical to do so? One might think that the eventual de facto supply is economically limited to less than the maximum 21 million -unless- there was significant further adoption of the currency.

[yogi]

When it becomes unprofitable for miners to mine they switch off their rigs. This leads to a drop in difficulty and mining becomes profitable again.

After the 21 million limit is reached all the profits for miners will come from transaction fees.

[bitcoinnewbie]

Oh, I see. Thank you. I guess many people will be waiting for that day then.