what will happen if miners stop mining bitcoin?

[intrader]

What will happen if miners stop mining bitcoin? Will result in broken blockchain or any other problems to the network? I would like to buy some bitcoin for long-term investment and not plan to sell for years

[TheMage]

What will happen if miners stop mining bitcoin? Will result in broken blockchain or any other problems to the network? I would like to buy some bitcoin for long-term investment and not plan to sell for years

If miners stop mining the network, than the security is degraded and the network would be susceptible to attacks such as the infamous %51 attack.


Today with the interest in Bitcoin, there isn't much of a risk about worrying about this. Even when block rewards halve over time, the fees are suppose to account for miners incentives. This of course could be up for debate, but in theory from the inception of Bitcoin, there should always be a miners incentive.

[BitcoinSupremo]

What will happen if miners stop mining bitcoin? Will result in broken blockchain or any other problems to the network? I would like to buy some bitcoin for long-term investment and not plan to sell for years

Go ahead and buy for the longer term, keep them safe in a hardware wallet for years before selling them. Nothing will happen to the bitcoin network as miners will not stop mining as long as there is some incentive to them or being the fees when sending a bitcoin transaction. There will always be transaction fees as long as people will keep using bitcoins and by the calculation the last coin will be mined to make 21 mln coins available in the year 2140, which pretty sure we would all be dead by then so do not worry as nothing will happen, except that the price may skyrocket after those years and you be a rich man back then when you will sell your coins.

[mindrust]

The whole system will collapse.

But that will not happen unless bitcoin's price drops down to 100$ or smth like that. As long as mining is profitable, people will be mining bitcoins.

[intrader]

What will happen if miners stop mining bitcoin? Will result in broken blockchain or any other problems to the network? I would like to buy some bitcoin for long-term investment and not plan to sell for years

Go ahead and buy for the longer term, keep them safe in a hardware wallet for years before selling them. Nothing will happen to the bitcoin network as miners will not stop mining as long as there is some incentive to them or being the fees when sending a bitcoin transaction. There will always be transaction fees as long as people will keep using bitcoins and by the calculation the last coin will be mined to make 21 mln coins available in the year 2140, which pretty sure we would all be dead by then so do not worry as nothing will happen, except that the price may skyrocket after those years and you be a rich man back then when you will sell your coins.

You are so funny but make senses, lol

[romero121]

The whole system will collapse.

But that will not happen unless bitcoin's price drops down to 100$ or smth like that. As long as mining is profitable, people will be mining bitcoins.

Yeah miners won't stop bitcoin mining at the earliest. Miners were the key factor for the successful growth and long time survival of bitcoin compared to other digital currencies. If by situation miners stop mining, some others will start mining.

[Lauda]

If miners stop mining the network, than the security is degraded and the network would be susceptible to attacks such as the infamous %51 attack.

No, that's not it. What you're describing is a scenario where a portion of the miners stop hashing which makes the network more susceptible to such attacks. What OP is describing is a scenario in which all(?) miners stop mining Bitcoin. This is a very unusual and improbable case in which Bitcoin would most likely be going towards its death. However, let's assume that all of the turn on machines and nobody turns new machines on (also unlikely) the Bitcoin network would just come to a halt. Transactions would just go into mempools but they would never end up being confirmed. If you understand how Bitcoin functions, then you'd know that it couldn't work in such a scenario.

Today with the interest in Bitcoin, there isn't much of a risk about worrying about this.

People are very bad with probabilities. This reminds me of people who worry about private key collisions when it is more likely that a meteorite wipes out Earth.

[Enotche]

A mining never end. After all, in order to function bitcoin network, ie, Mining committed to the transaction must always continue until the network lives. Because the blocks are wrapped in a transaction and stored in the database, where they are stored, and if mining ceases, it can no longer be transact, i.e. transfer coins to other people.

[TastyChillySauce00]

The whole system will collapse.

But that will not happen unless bitcoin's price drops down to 100$ or smth like that. As long as mining is profitable, people will be mining bitcoins.

if the price getting lower even after halving happening the miners could possibly looking for another way to earn more profit rather than holding on bitcoin,just for example alt,but if they still see bitcoin profitable then why move,100$ will indeed make miners get away but even 300$ after halving will make miners thinking twice to continue the mining unless they got very cheap electricity

[Dr.Osh]

for bitcoin is still used, I think bitcoin prices will be higher in the near future. but I think bitcoin will be increasingly difficult to get, and if it happens, I think the price of bitcoin will start to fall in the near future after the bitcoin prices rise, and it will probably make bitcoin be no longer needed. but I think it will not happen

[helloeverybody]

Ive worried at one time or another about every possibility that bitcoin could die for 1 reason or another but i think its pretty safe to say that miners wont leave. As long as theres profit to be made someone will be mining. Be that commercial miners mining dozens of coins a day or home miners mining a few satoshis each day.

[grim007]

the value of btc will be decrease. and many people will hoard of it

[serjent05]

What will happen if miners stop mining bitcoin? Will result in broken blockchain or any other problems to the network? I would like to buy some bitcoin for long-term investment and not plan to sell for years

The movement of chain will stop.  Automatically all transaction will be unconfirmed.  The Bitcoin economy will be in chaos.  This will result to fear and the buy support will start to be pulled out.  And then one by one cpu will start mining it again but due to global low hashrate, this will be susceptible to double spending.  But then all those who are holding BTC will make sure this wont happen so they will start mining it by themselves and the domino effect follows.  Basically mining Bitcoin wont end even if all coins are mined.  This is one of the reason, personal interest and investment security.  So be calm and hold your BTC for as long you want.

[vetpet]

The movement of chain will stop.  Automatically all transaction will be unconfirmed.  The Bitcoin economy will be in chaos.  This will result to fear and the buy support will start to be pulled out.  And then one by one cpu will start mining it again but due to global low hashrate, this will be susceptible to double spending.  But then all those who are holding BTC will make sure this wont happen so they will start mining it by themselves and the domino effect follows.  Basically mining Bitcoin wont end even if all coins are mined.  This is one of the reason, personal interest and investment security.  So be calm and hold your BTC for as long you want.

I agree, many people are strongly interested in bitcoin. I personally will start mining again if all current miners stop their activity.

[TheMage]

If miners stop mining the network, than the security is degraded and the network would be susceptible to attacks such as the infamous %51 attack.

No, that's not it. What you're describing is a scenario where a portion of the miners stop hashing which makes the network more susceptible to such attacks. What OP is describing is a scenario in which all(?) miners stop mining Bitcoin. This is a very unusual and improbable case in which Bitcoin would most likely be going towards its death. However, let's assume that all of the turn on machines and nobody turns new machines on (also unlikely) the Bitcoin network would just come to a halt. Transactions would just go into mempools but they would never end up being confirmed. If you understand how Bitcoin functions, then you'd know that it couldn't work in such a scenario.

Today with the interest in Bitcoin, there isn't much of a risk about worrying about this.

People are very bad with probabilities. This reminds me of people who worry about private key collisions when it is more likely that a meteorite wipes out Earth.

It's the way I interpreted the question. Nether mine nor your answer is incorrect.


Also im not sure I understand your second statement and how its applicable to what I wrote. Are you saying that there is a risk of this happening?

[BlueStackz]

The whole system will collapse.

But that will not happen unless bitcoin's price drops down to 100$ or smth like that. As long as mining is profitable, people will be mining bitcoins.

It's most likely that miners won't stop mining bitcoin but in case they do then the system will fail. Mining bitcoin keeps the bitcoin network working by approving the transactions which creates a stable, safe and secure network. Thus mining is the intregal part of the bitcoins.

[kik1977]

The whole system will collapse.

But that will not happen unless bitcoin's price drops down to 100$ or smth like that. As long as mining is profitable, people will be mining bitcoins.

It's most likely that miners won't stop mining bitcoin but in case they do then the system will fail. Mining bitcoin keeps the bitcoin network working by approving the transactions which creates a stable, safe and secure network. Thus mining is the intregal part of the bitcoins.

Theory: if ALL miners stop mining, as explained by Lauda, there will not be new blocks added to the blockchain, all transactions would not be confirmed. Panic! Value of bitcoin: zero.

Reality: that would never happen. Even if all current miners stop mining, the difficulty would drop in max 2 weeks. Old miners with old equipment would start mining again because it would be profitable again.

[Lauda]

the value of btc will be decrease. and many people will hoard of it

Stop making useless posts.

It's the way I interpreted the question. Nether mine nor your answer is incorrect.

If you want to look at it that way, yes.

Also im not sure I understand your second statement and how its applicable to what I wrote. Are you saying that there is a risk of this happening?

What I mean is, people worry about things with very low probabilities that may or may not happen in the future. I've seen a few threads about collisions. Why worry about private key collisions when it is more likely that Earth would be destroyed by a meteorite? People are just very bad with probabilities (this is why they play lotto). The only scenario in which I see miners turning off pretty much all of their devices is one in which Bitcoin is already dying/dead (so it wouldn't even matter).

[Bestwishes745]

I think no one will do like that, no one will leave mining but only the small miners who will not earn good amount , there are a lot of other big miners who know well that mining is beneficial and they will not leave mining.

[groll]

What will happen if miners stop mining bitcoin? Will result in broken blockchain or any other problems to the network? I would like to buy some bitcoin for long-term investment and not plan to sell for years

If miners stop mining then bitcoin will cease to exist 20 years from now. If there are no miners there will be big transactions problem such as major hacking incidents. Long term investment is a big problem not because of miners stop mining but more on the instability of bitcoins price demand on the market. If you will invest long term it needs daily monitoring as to avoid losses.