My Beginner Bitcoin Questions for 2021 (will be posting more in 2022)

[tankemtank20]

I have entered into the Bitcoin blackhole as of November 2021 and here are some of the questions I have. Feel free to answer whichever question you feel led to!

1) Once all 21million bitcoin have been mined, will transaction fees be enough incentive for miners to continue validating transactions on the blockchain?

2) What is the significance of bitcoin being "open source"? Doesn't that mean that the fixed amount of Bitcoin in the original code could be changed? (This speaks to my lack of programming knowledge I guess)

3) A major draw to cryptos like Bitcoin is its decentralized nature. But in order to participate in the game, you need an internet connection right? So aren't cryptos unavailable unless you have a centralized power that provides the ability to connect to the internet? (Maybe this speaks to a lack of understanding about how the internet/wifi connections work)

4) If a block is limited to approximately 2,400 transactions. Once Bitcoin becomes more widely used and there are millions of transactions taking place everyday, wouldn't that create a backlog of transactions? And couldn't that make the system super slow and inefficient at confirming transactions. (could the code be updated to allow blocks to be confirmed faster than 10 minutes?)

5) *kind of a wild conspiracy theory type question* I've heard it said that world powers typically last for about 250 years. As the United States is coming up on its 250 year anniversary, could failure to adapt to cryptocurrencies, overregulation by government that slows progress, etc. be our downfall as the rest of the world speeds ahead into this new world and we are left behind? (sorry if this is a dumb question lol)


Thanks everyone, looking forward to what the 2022 has in store for cryptos 

[FatFork]

I have entered into the Bitcoin blackhole as of November 2021 and here are some of the questions I have. Feel free to answer whichever question you feel led to!

Welcome to the community!

1) Once all 21million bitcoin have been mined, will transaction fees be enough incentive for miners to continue validating transactions on the blockchain?

No one can say that for sure since it depends on numerous factors. However, I don't think that matters at all because even if transaction fees aren't enough incentive for miners, there will always be individuals willing to run full nodes and continue validating transactions on the blockchain even for free.

[RapTarX]

1) Once all 21million bitcoin have been mined, will transaction fees be enough incentive for miners to continue validating transactions on the blockchain?

[2017-06-08] What Happens to Bitcoin After All 21 Million are Mined?

2) What is the significance of bitcoin being "open source"? Doesn't that mean that the fixed amount of Bitcoin in the original code could be changed? (This speaks to my lack of programming knowledge I guess)

If you change the original code & its fixed amount of supply; welcome, you have successfully created an altcoin. That will not anymore be bitcoin. You can't change the supply of bitcoin.

3) A major draw to cryptos like Bitcoin is its decentralized nature. But in order to participate in the game, you need an internet connection right? So aren't cryptos unavailable unless you have a centralized power that provides the ability to connect to the internet? (Maybe this speaks to a lack of understanding about how the internet/wifi connections work)

Maybe you are right. You may get interested to read this- SENDING BITCOIN WITHOUT THE INTERNET

4) If a block is limited to approximately 2,400 transactions. Once Bitcoin becomes more widely used and there are millions of transactions taking place everyday, wouldn't that create a backlog of transactions? And couldn't that make the system super slow and inefficient at confirming transactions. (could the code be updated to allow blocks to be confirmed faster than 10 minutes?)

Where did you find exactly 2400 txs? It depends on the size of the txs.
If block time changes into faster-

Faster block conf times leads to a higher rate of orphaned blocks, increases the likelihood of dishonest folks from succeeding in double-spends in certain circumstances, and creates a larger blockchain.

A confirmation is not a guarantee of authenticity. Decreasing conf time proportionally decreases the "value" of the confirmation. Decreasing confirmation times would be accounted for in services requiring confirmations, where required confirmation times would be increased to completely negate the decreased conf times. (for example, Gox requires 6 confs -- reducing conf time to 5m would result in Gox requiring 12 confs)

... That said... to compromise the Bitcoin network back when the six-conf suggestion was suggested, it was dramatically less expensive to have double-spends confirm. Three confirmations is now more than adequate for all transactions under hundreds of thousands in USD. Going beyond is really just (inadequately) protecting yourself against a fork. Maybe it is time to discuss lowering the target conf time?

ETA: Devs may also be trying to encourage Bitcoin transactions to occur internally on central servers to keep "casual" transactions off the blockchain... OTOH, they seem to be in general consensus that the block size should be increased in the near future. I'm sure one'll come in soon and tell us what's up.

5) *kind of a wild conspiracy theory type question* I've heard it said that world powers typically last for about 250 years. As the United States is coming up on its 250 year anniversary, could failure to adapt to cryptocurrencies, overregulation by government that slows progress, etc. be our downfall as the rest of the world speeds ahead into this new world and we are left behind? (sorry if this is a dumb question lol)

That's a question for Economy board.

[Charles-Tim]

1) Once all 21million bitcoin have been mined, will transaction fees be enough incentive for miners to continue validating transactions on the blockchain?

Before, the mining reward was 50 BTC at the start, but this has halved every 210000 blocks and halved to 25 BTC, then to 12.5 BTC and then to 6.25 in the last halving that occured in 2020. There has been increase in mining hashrates which indicates mining is profitable up till now and some miners have been in this all because of its profit. Taking look at the price from the past, the price of bitcoin increased and reach all-time-high as usual, also the reward is gradually shifting from mining reward to transaction fee which are generated while miners include transaction in block and get the fee along side block mined reward. The price of bitcoin that is increasing really helped as it makes the transaction fee higher in fiat price. If the adoption continues, the incentives is gradually from and successfully changing from the mining reward to transaction fee. All needed is adoption, there would be a successful shift and the transaction fee will be enough as the block reward is reducing.

2) What is the significance of bitcoin being "open source"? Doesn't that mean that the fixed amount of Bitcoin in the original code could be changed? (This speaks to my lack of programming knowledge I guess)

Bitcoin is open source because everything about bitcoin is transparent and available for the public to see. There is nothing closed about bitcoin, everything is all available to the public. Anything that would be changed about bitcoin will be accepted by the bitcoin community, if not accepted by most of bitcoin community, this would lead to another hardfork and new altcoin will be created while bitcoin remain bitcoin.

3) A major draw to cryptos like Bitcoin is its decentralized nature. But in order to participate in the game, you need an internet connection right? So aren't cryptos unavailable unless you have a centralized power that provides the ability to connect to the internet? (Maybe this speaks to a lack of understanding about how the internet/wifi connections work)

Decentralized nature is set back? Then why bitcoin is the most successful asset of last decade. Its decentralized nature gives room to freedom unlike centralized fiat.

[BlackHatCoiner]

First of all, welcome!

1) Once all 21million bitcoin have been mined, will transaction fees be enough incentive for miners to continue validating transactions on the blockchain?

Currently, each block rewards 6.25 BTC plus a little bit more than 0.1 BTC on average in fees. So, when the block reward becomes less than 0.1 BTC (not necessarily 0 BTC), I suspect that there'll be miners.

As for the incentive, if at the moment 1 BTC = $47,000, then their reward is ~6.35 BTC = ~$300,000k. In order for them to have the same incentive when the block subsidy reduces by a lot, then 0.1 BTC has to cost $300,000 which makes 1 BTC valuated at $3,000,000. (ceteris paribus)

2) What is the significance of bitcoin being "open source"? Doesn't that mean that the fixed amount of Bitcoin in the original code could be changed? (This speaks to my lack of programming knowledge I guess)

They can be changed, but the change will only affect your node. Bitcoin is community-based. There's no entity that dictates what to do with it. So, in order to achieve increasing the 21 million cap, you have to convince the overwhelming majority do so, otherwise you're just running an altcoin no one agrees.

3) A major draw to cryptos like Bitcoin is its decentralized nature. But in order to participate in the game, you need an internet connection right? So aren't cryptos unavailable unless you have a centralized power that provides the ability to connect to the internet? (Maybe this speaks to a lack of understanding about how the internet/wifi connections work)

And so as to sustain your food, electricity is required. Does that make electric power industries almighties?

4) If a block is limited to approximately 2,400 transactions. Once Bitcoin becomes more widely used and there are millions of transactions taking place everyday, wouldn't that create a backlog of transactions? And couldn't that make the system super slow and inefficient at confirming transactions. (could the code be updated to allow blocks to be confirmed faster than 10 minutes?)

The problem you describe is called the “scalability problem”. A short answer is that we're working on off-chain solutions such as the Lightning Network to tackle it. If you increase the block size (to allow more transactions to be included) you're making more expensive for the average user to run a node, which brings discouragement.

It also isn't a practical and efficient way to encounter this issue. If you want to learn more about it, I recommend to create another thread dedicated to it.

I've heard it said that world powers typically last for about 250 years. As the United States is coming up on its 250 year anniversary, could failure to adapt to cryptocurrencies, overregulation by government that slows progress, etc. be our downfall as the rest of the world speeds ahead into this new world and we are left behind?

Who's the rest of the world that speeds ahead and who are we who don't?

[Rath_]

This has to do with mining difficulty. if there are more transactions to be processed, the mining difficulty will be adjusted every 2016 mined blocks in a way 10 minutes on average is enough to process as many as possible transactions in a way all work fine.

The number of unconfirmed transactions has nothing to do with the interval between blocks. As more miners join the network, new blocks are mined more frequently. The protocol aims to sustain 10 minute intervals by adjusting the difficulty every 2016 blocks. Blocks have a fixed maximum size (4 vMB), which can be changed only through another soft/hard fork.

[Stalker22]

3) A major draw to cryptos like Bitcoin is its decentralized nature. But in order to participate in the game, you need an internet connection right? So aren't cryptos unavailable unless you have a centralized power that provides the ability to connect to the internet? (Maybe this speaks to a lack of understanding about how the internet/wifi connections work)

What is the centralized power that allows you to connect to the internet? It's true that most services on the Internet are centralized, but the Internet itself is quite decentralized. We all have numerous ways to connect to the internet, so I do not believe there is a single power that controls everything.

[Darker45]

1) Once all 21million bitcoin have been mined, will transaction fees be enough incentive for miners to continue validating transactions on the blockchain?

Only time can tell, but most likely yes. A hundred years from now, a Satoshi is expected to be worth much much more.

2) What is the significance of bitcoin being "open source"? Doesn't that mean that the fixed amount of Bitcoin in the original code could be changed? (This speaks to my lack of programming knowledge I guess)

Being open source means Bitcoin is open to the public. The significance of which is that it is owned by nobody and everybody. The fixed amount of Bitcoin is hard-coded in the system. It might take a hard-fork for a change of its supply. If that happens, the fork is not anymore the original Bitcoin.

3) A major draw to cryptos like Bitcoin is its decentralized nature. But in order to participate in the game, you need an internet connection right? So aren't cryptos unavailable unless you have a centralized power that provides the ability to connect to the internet? (Maybe this speaks to a lack of understanding about how the internet/wifi connections work)

Power is centralized because it has a main switch or a few main switches. But it doesn't speak of how Bitcoin is decentralized. It has nothing to do with it. But, of course, Bitcoin, just like our everyday lives, is highly dependent on power. However, the rise of solar power and other alternative sources of energy give people the opportunity to stay off-grid, produce their own power, and be completely independent from the public power supply.

4) If a block is limited to approximately 2,400 transactions. Once Bitcoin becomes more widely used and there are millions of transactions taking place everyday, wouldn't that create a backlog of transactions? And couldn't that make the system super slow and inefficient at confirming transactions. (could the code be updated to allow blocks to be confirmed faster than 10 minutes?)

There's the Lightning Network that is providing solution to that.

5) *kind of a wild conspiracy theory type question* I've heard it said that world powers typically last for about 250 years. As the United States is coming up on its 250 year anniversary, could failure to adapt to cryptocurrencies, overregulation by government that slows progress, etc. be our downfall as the rest of the world speeds ahead into this new world and we are left behind? (sorry if this is a dumb question lol)

The world does not revolve around Bitcoin.

[Lucius]

If you change the original code & its fixed amount of supply; welcome, you have successfully created an altcoin. That will not anymore be bitcoin. You can't change the supply of bitcoin.

You are right in principle, but you must know that at any time in the future a consensus can be reached to increase the max supply, yet it is only a code. Of course, in that case, we can ask the question, whether it would still be Bitcoin or just another fork, but if the majority agreed on such an idea, the matter would be quite clear and unambiguous. If you were to ask some people who got involved late about what the max supply should be, I’m sure most wouldn’t mind adding a few million more.

Most of us here are certainly against such an idea, but what people will think in 20 or 50 years is hard to say - I'm pretty sure they will want some change, just as we look at a lot of things from the past today as outdated and we want to modernize them.

[jrrsparkles]

 ::)1. Yes it will be enough because we still have 120 years for the last bitcoin to be mined so by that time if bitcoin js actually in use then it will attain a value of almost 1sat =1 dollar.

2. The code is open and if someone tries to create another coin then it will be the hardfork not the actual bitcoin.

3. ISP can't find your bitcoin wallet even if they find still they can't stop you from making transactions.

4. LN can be the solution if I am not wrong or more advanced feature can be found if its needed.

[odolvlobo]

Plenty of people have responded, but here are my short and to-the-point answers to your questions.

1) Once all 21million bitcoin have been mined, will transaction fees be enough incentive for miners to continue validating transactions on the blockchain?

Mining is designed to be profitable via the difficulty adjustment no matter what the value of the block reward is (as long as it is more than 0).

2) What is the significance of bitcoin being "open source"? Doesn't that mean that the fixed amount of Bitcoin in the original code could be changed? (This speaks to my lack of programming knowledge I guess)

Open source allows anyone to validate and customize the software that they run. Note that nodes in the Bitcoin network will ignore your node if it is customized in such a way that it breaks their rules (for example, exceeding the 21 million bitcoin limit).

3) A major draw to cryptos like Bitcoin is its decentralized nature. But in order to participate in the game, you need an internet connection right?

I don't know about where you live, but there are hundreds of different places to connect to the internet near where I live. It's a different story, of course, in countries where the government has complete control of the internet in that country.

4) If a block is limited to approximately 2,400 transactions. Once Bitcoin becomes more widely used and there are millions of transactions taking place everyday, wouldn't that create a backlog of transactions?

That is potentially a problem for Bitcoin. The current hope is that other protocols (such as Lightning network) will provide the necessary scalability.

5) I've heard it said that world powers typically last for about 250 years...

There is nothing magic about 250 years. If the U.S. goes down, it won't have anything to do with 250 years.

[tranthidung]

1) Once all 21million bitcoin have been mined, will transaction fees be enough incentive for miners to continue validating transactions on the blockchain?

Bitcoin network operates by mining through Proof of Work and block rewards are not the most important thing to maintain its operations and Proof of Work activities by mining. Miners will get mining rewards in either block rewards or transaction cost. The latter one is more important.

It's hard to predict what price Bitcoin will have after 21M Bitcoins all mined but for now, you can look at the very latest block #716616, you will see some stats

• Fee total: 0.08266016BTC ~3,826USD
• What value will 0.0826 BTC be in next 1 century, when 21M BTC mined?. It would be huge and it would be enough for miners to enjoy income from transaction fee.
• Imagine it like years ago, if a miner got a reward as 1 BTC, it was not enough but now 1 BTC from mining reward is a dream for miners. The same goes for transaction fee for each block one century later

2) What is the significance of bitcoin being "open source"? Doesn't that mean that the fixed amount of Bitcoin in the original code could be changed? (This speaks to my lack of programming knowledge I guess)

No. You can not. Bitcoin transactions and blocks can not be reversed. Especially impossible if it is blocks and transactions done 11 years ago. People can only make Bitcoin forks but past blocks will be unchanged.

To understand more about impossibility of reversing very old transactions, please read

• Mastering Bitcoin, chapter 9 - The Blockchain

One way to think about the blockchain is like layers in a geological formation, or glacier core sample. The surface layers might change with the seasons, or even be blown away before they have time to settle. But once you go a few inches deep, geological layers become more and more stable. By the time you look a few hundred feet down, you are looking at a snapshot of the past that has remained undisturbed for millions of years. In the blockchain, the most recent few blocks might be revised if there is a chain recalculation due to a fork. The top six blocks are like a few inches of topsoil. But once you go more deeply into the blockchain, beyond six blocks, blocks are less and less likely to change. After 100 blocks back, there is so much stability that the coinbase transaction—the transaction containing newly mined bitcoin—can be spent. A few thousand blocks back (a month) and the blockchain is settled history, for all practical purposes. While the protocol always allows a chain to be undone by a longer chain and while the possibility of any block being reversed always exists, the probability of such an event decreases as time passes until it becomes infinitesimal.

3) A major draw to cryptos like Bitcoin is its decentralized nature.

I am doubtful that most of people attracted this way. They probably were attracted by volatility of Bitcoin market with which they see great potential to earn huge profit if they accepting risk.

4) If a block is limited to approximately 2,400 transactions. Once Bitcoin becomes more widely used and there are millions of transactions taking place everyday, wouldn't that create a backlog of transactions? And couldn't that make the system super slow and inefficient at confirming transactions. (could the code be updated to allow blocks to be confirmed faster than 10 minutes?)

It can be done via Consensus upgrade of the Protocol or via Layer 2 solutions such as Lightning Network.

Since 2020, whenever you look at Lightning Network, you will see it grows very fast.

• https://txstats.com/dashboard/db/lightning-network?orgId=1&from=now-5y&to=now
• Lightning Network is bigger than you think

[o_e_l_e_o]

Yes it will be enough because we still have 120 years for the last bitcoin to be mined so by that time if bitcoin js actually in use then it will attain a value of almost 1sat =1 dollar.

It will take 120 years for the last few sats to be mined, but there will be less than 1 BTC remaining to be mined in around 90 years, and the block reward will drop below the current average block fees in around 25-30 years. The fees will play a very significant role in the incentivization of miners long before 2140. There is also no guarantee that 1 sat will ever equal 1 dollar.

Miners will get mining rewards in either block rewards or transaction cost. The latter one is more important.

The latter one will be more important eventually, as I explained above, but it certainly isn't more important at the moment, on average making up less than 2% of the total block subsidy.

[tranthidung]

Miners will get mining rewards in either block rewards or transaction cost. The latter one is more important.

The latter one will be more important eventually, as I explained above, but it certainly isn't more important at the moment, on average making up less than 2% of the total block subsidy.

I understand but it is a long term vision as it should be. After next few halvings, block reward will be reduced a lot and soon miners will realize and accept that their main income will be from transaction cost, and will no longer be block rewards.

Now block reward is 6.25 BTC and after next 6 halvings, it will drop to 0.09765625 BTC which is almost as same as transaction fee for each block now.