When 21 million coins have been mined.

[coinpr0n]

According to Jon Matonis (former Bitcoin Foundation Executive Director) we might not even need/have a 21 million coin cap ... https://twitter.com/jonmatonis/status/611844197331693568

Also, here: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/jon-matonis-believes-increased-bitcoin-block-size-will-lead-increased-mining-reward/

[cryptojumper]

According to Jon Matonis (former Bitcoin Foundation Executive Director) we might not even need/have a 21 million coin cap ... https://twitter.com/jonmatonis/status/611844197331693568

Also, here: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/jon-matonis-believes-increased-bitcoin-block-size-will-lead-increased-mining-reward/

In theory there could be a hardfork for that but the price would decrease accordingly and it would have severe negative consequences for trust in bitcoin. Why do you think there is so little change in bitcoin while there are so many changes in altcoins, and especially in those new shiny ones. Just because of that. I doubt serious investors would feel comfortable in having assets with constantly varying fundamental properties..

[Argwai96]

According to Jon Matonis (former Bitcoin Foundation Executive Director) we might not even need/have a 21 million coin cap ... https://twitter.com/jonmatonis/status/611844197331693568

Also, here: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/jon-matonis-believes-increased-bitcoin-block-size-will-lead-increased-mining-reward/

In theory there could be a hardfork for that but the price would decrease accordingly and it would have severe negative consequences for trust in bitcoin. Why do you think there is so little change in bitcoin while there are so many changes in altcoins, and especially in those new shiny ones. Just because of that. I doubt serious investors would feel comfortable in having assets with constantly varying fundamental properties..

Has anyone thought about  Proof of stake would be the best way to go after the 21m are mining, lol the miners would go crazy tonz of machines just going to the dump.

[Marbit]

Just a newb question, what happens when the 21 million coins gets mined out. What will keep the blockchain moving after this point and just to confirm there will never be more then 21 million coins?

Going with the assumption that there will be breakthroughs in mining tech, it still seems highly unlikely to be able to live long enough to witness the volume increasing to 21 Million. So, yeah, shouldn't be a cause of concern.

[TibanneCat]

In theory there could be a hardfork for that but the price would decrease accordingly and it would have severe negative consequences for trust in bitcoin. Why do you think there is so little change in bitcoin while there are so many changes in altcoins, and especially in those new shiny ones. Just because of that. I doubt serious investors would feel comfortable in having assets with constantly varying fundamental properties..

Completely agree.

[evenlydistributingfuture]

Even after 21 million bitcoin are mined, the blockchain will keep going along and recording transactions, as you suggest in your question. It will then rely on transaction fees as has been said multiple times already, but the nature of transaction fees will be different at that point. These fees will need to incentivize people to keep mining, for some to keep running full nodes, and to keep the system running.

When what a can miner can get himself or herself in the coinbase transaction of a block is not enough to motivate them, then they will start looking for higher transaction fees. I suppose transaction fees will be much higher then.

Since it is so far off, it's really all speculation right now. I wouldn't worry much about it. If your kids are trying to use bitcoins you're getting now, I imagine those would be pretty valuable.

[edric]

Just a newb question, what happens when the 21 million coins gets mined out. What will keep the blockchain moving after this point and just to confirm there will never be more then 21 million coins?

Please give me half a million of those when 21 millions have been mined  I thought the number should have been well over 50 million or so.

[randy8777]

According to Jon Matonis (former Bitcoin Foundation Executive Director) we might not even need/have a 21 million coin cap ... https://twitter.com/jonmatonis/status/611844197331693568

Also, here: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/jon-matonis-believes-increased-bitcoin-block-size-will-lead-increased-mining-reward/

In theory there could be a hardfork for that but the price would decrease accordingly and it would have severe negative consequences for trust in bitcoin. Why do you think there is so little change in bitcoin while there are so many changes in altcoins, and especially in those new shiny ones. Just because of that. I doubt serious investors would feel comfortable in having assets with constantly varying fundamental properties..

Has anyone thought about  Proof of stake would be the best way to go after the 21m are mining, lol the miners would go crazy tonz of machines just going to the dump.

proof of stake isn't fair. exchanges always benefit. it's not a good idea to mess with the 21m coin cap. it's something that must never be changed.

[Oscilson]

Has anyone thought about  Proof of stake would be the best way to go after the 21m are mining, lol the miners would go crazy tonz of machines just going to the dump.

proof of stake isn't fair. exchanges always benefit. it's not a good idea to mess with the 21m coin cap. it's something that must never be changed.

When bitcoin is the only coin left, there will be no currency exchanges. However, if you want to buy stocks/shares in a brokerage, you have to store memory there, then those entities will earn PoS interest.

[Amph]

Just a newb question, what happens when the 21 million coins gets mined out. What will keep the blockchain moving after this point and just to confirm there will never be more then 21 million coins?

Please give me half a million of those when 21 millions have been mined  I thought the number should have been well over 50 million or so.

nah, having a much greater number would only delay the success of bitcoin, in the worst case scenario, where adoption will not raise by much and we will grow because of less supply dumped each day

actually it should have been lower, but when satoshi thought about the correct number, He also took into account the coins that will be lost

[spazzdla]

We will all be long dead.

[blablaace]

once all coins have been mined, the price will go up, ie supply and demand

[bitcoin1992]

chose 50BTC as a block reward and then chose to cut that reward in half every 210,000 blocks.  If you do the math, that just happens to work out to a bit less than 21 million (20999999.97690000 to be exact).

[tss]

don't worry about when all the coins are theoretically mined (2140).  worry about when most of the coins have already been mined (2024).

[Possum577]

By then besides us being dead, 1 BTC will be something ridiculous like 100 million current USD dollars, which means the small BTC made from mining will still be profitable, well it will not be really mining, it will just be transaction processing.

How are people so sure that the price per bitcoin will be so great? There's not analysis that say this is likely to happen, right? If so, can someone share it with me? PM me...seriously, I'd love to read it!

[chennan]

once all coins have been mined, the price will go up, ie supply and demand

By then besides us being dead, 1 BTC will be something ridiculous like 100 million current USD dollars, which means the small BTC made from mining will still be profitable, well it will not be really mining, it will just be transaction processing.

How are people so sure that the price per bitcoin will be so great? There's not analysis that say this is likely to happen, right? If so, can someone share it with me? PM me...seriously, I'd love to read it!

Although we know the price might increase a lot after mining reward halving or 0 block reward, but no one can definitely predict the price in the future. As an investor, we only can invest what we can afford to lose!

[cryptojumper]

Has anyone thought about  Proof of stake would be the best way to go after the 21m are mining, lol the miners would go crazy tonz of machines just going to the dump.

proof of stake isn't fair. exchanges always benefit. it's not a good idea to mess with the 21m coin cap. it's something that must never be changed.

When bitcoin is the only coin left, there will be no currency exchanges. However, if you want to buy stocks/shares in a brokerage, you have to store memory there, then those entities will earn PoS interest.

Why do you think only bitcoin will be left? To my knowledge the number of coins are only increasing faster and faster. If there are no alts and bitcoin worth a fortune we might have a situation where 1 satoshi is too much for certain things... Altcoins could fit this role pretty well I think..

[Amph]

Has anyone thought about  Proof of stake would be the best way to go after the 21m are mining, lol the miners would go crazy tonz of machines just going to the dump.

proof of stake isn't fair. exchanges always benefit. it's not a good idea to mess with the 21m coin cap. it's something that must never be changed.

When bitcoin is the only coin left, there will be no currency exchanges. However, if you want to buy stocks/shares in a brokerage, you have to store memory there, then those entities will earn PoS interest.

Why do you think only bitcoin will be left? To my knowledge the number of coins are only increasing faster and faster. If there are no alts and bitcoin worth a fortune we might have a situation where 1 satoshi is too much for certain things... Altcoins could fit this role pretty well I think..

it's a bit hard for 1 satoshi to become "too much in value", essentially we are talking about 1 satoshi 1 dollar or more, which mean an unbelievable market cap, chances are very slim that something like this could be ever achieved

so altcoin will remain useless, we really do not need to replicate the amount of different fiat in circulation, with different crypto coin

[S4VV4S]

Transaction fees Will be the mining reward. High use of the bitcoin network Will be required to adequately pay the miners. On the other hand, You Will probably not live by that Time anymore, so You dont need to worry too much.

So the mining power thrown at bitcoin will be radically reduced at that point but it won't matter as 51% attacks would be useless since no new coins will be produced.

Stabilized will be more like it. We will reach an equilibrium stage where there will be only a few mining operations.
The 51% attack has nothing to do with mining new coins other than the fact that using that much power for mining coins would be profitable.
It has to do with double spends of coins the attacker already owns and to prevent other users from making a transaction.

Also, as Norris pointed out, the transaction fees will be the only reward for the miners by that time.
But you can expect the transaction fee rewards to be huge since by that time Bitcoin will be globally accepted and widespread.

[iram66680]

Transaction fees Will be the mining reward. High use of the bitcoin network Will be required to adequately pay the miners. On the other hand, You Will probably not live by that Time anymore, so You dont need to worry too much.

So the mining power thrown at bitcoin will be radically reduced at that point but it won't matter as 51% attacks would be useless since no new coins will be produced.

-snip- prevent other users from making a transaction.

51% attack doesn't prevents other users from making a transaction. It can only prevent other user's transaction to be gaining confirmations, prevent other miners from mining valid blocks.