Will there be enough of bitcoins for everyone?

[Watermen]

I am newbie.

It just keep me wondering if there is enough of bitcoins for everyone in the world?

We have 7 billions people.

With 21 millions BTC only...

And coins lost never get replaced...so over time it will only get less and less, once it reach below a certain limit, it just can't function as a currency anymore. If it does not function as a currency, what purpose does it serves?

So how it is logical for anyone to use it as a currency if BTC only decrease in number over time?

Please someone kindly explain to me...will appreciate.

[tripleswag333]

They are highly divisible up to 1/100,000 I believe.

The relationship could be like gold vs silver. Gold is for saving and silver for spending. Maybe another competing crypto currency steps in for everyday spending while Bitcoin is used more for larger transactions.

[BurtW]

They are highly divisible up to 1/100,000 I believe.

The relationship could be like gold vs silver. Gold is for saving and silver for spending. Maybe another competing crypto currency steps in for everyday spending while Bitcoin is used more for larger transactions.

There will eventually be 21,000,000 Bitcoins.

Each Bitcoin can (currently) be divided into 100,000,000 pieces, most often called "Satoshis"

So there are 2,100,000,000,000,000 possible "Satoshis" - enough to go around.

In other words we can deal with 0.00000001 Bitcoins or 1/100,000,000th of a Bitcoin.

Think I finally got the number of zeros correct...  Tired...

[Watermen]

Despite 1 bitcoin = 100 millions satoshi, but it is still a finite amount and it can be lost forever. Will 7 billions of people, 1 person may be able to get only 140,000 satoshi. How we going to transect with such a small amount of currency?

[dasein]

Interesting question OP. It seems like the code can be modified if necessary to support smaller units based on this thread: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/122/will-we-ever-need-smaller-amounts-of-bitcoin-than-a-satoshi

Also, there doesn't need to be enough bitcoins for everyone in the world for them to have value. There's not enough gold for everyone in the world but it still has value as a currency. If there aren't enough bitcoins in the world, the gap will be filled with alternative cryptocurrencies, and the scarcity of bitcoin could even reinforce its dominance as the "gold" standard of cryptocurrencies because it has the most hashing behind it.

[MoonShadow]

Despite 1 bitcoin = 100 millions satoshi, but it is still a finite amount and it can be lost forever. Will 7 billions of people, 1 person may be able to get only 140,000 satoshi. How we going to transect with such a small amount of currency?

Is this a serious question, or are you trolling here?

[Mike Christ]

You can increase and decrease the amount of time a number can be divided.  The next easiest way to divide BTC is with 16 zeroes, as opposed to 8.  However, I am uncertain if this will cause a hard fork or not.

[hiima]

One thing is that not everybody will want to get bitcoins.

[jakjakman]

I figure that if bitcoin get's at least 10 percent of paypal's market we'll be doing pretty good.  Plenty of bitcoins to go around for that. 

[leijurv]

There will be 2100000000000000 satoshis. Currently (at the time of this posting) there are 1099347500000000.

[RodeoX]

It is also not at all likely that BTC will become ubiquitous to the point of being used by everyone on earth, and exclusively.  It is most powerful as a way to send money over the Internet, but local currency is here to stay.

[simplydt]

One thing is for certain, all the bitcoin markets will have to start trading in satoshis - otherwise, buying 0.0001BTC will feel like you are not buying anything at all, buying 0.1 bitcoin for 10 euros now already feels like a rip off People like whole numbers!

[BurtW]

If you do not like 0.1 BTC call it 100 mBTC then, or if you really want to feel rich call it 100,000 uBTC!

[kayser292]

Get real, you won't defeat fiat currencies, forget about it. Invest in crypto, play your cards right, and make a profit, then turn that profit into fiat and give yourself a treat (or if you were smart and lucky enough to make a big investment, live the good life), cryptocurrencies won't overthrow fiat, not in our lifetimes, but cryptos are a good way of making an easy profit, it doesn't takes a genius to know you have to buy low and sell high.

[simplydt]

If you do not like 0.1 BTC call it 100 mBTC then, or if you really want to feel rich call it 100,000 uBTC!

While that's definitely better, good luck getting most of people on this planet to follow without having to google the conversion every time ;-)

[Gabi]

Get real, you won't defeat fiat currencies, forget about it. Invest in crypto, play your cards right, and make a profit, then turn that profit into fiat and give yourself a treat (or if you were smart and lucky enough to make a big investment, live the good life), cryptocurrencies won't overthrow fiat, not in our lifetimes, but cryptos are a good way of making an easy profit, it doesn't takes a genius to know you have to buy low and sell high.

Fiat currencies are suiciding, we don't have to defeat them, they are already ruining themselves.

[richie88]

More decimal places can always be added i would think so yes

[Neverest]

Don't forget that 2 billion people do not even have access to electricity, let alone Internet..

[Gator-hex]

The problem with Bitcoins (v1) is a few people have most of the supply. Much like fiat in the real world  

LiteCoin (v2) is fairer, in that people who can build FPGAs/ASICs cannot gain an advantage in mining speed

I'm thinking (v3) needs to have a in built peer-2-peer exchange too.

The Money Revolution has only just started, and like the car, it's not going to stop with the Ford Model A

[MoonShadow]

Don't forget that 2 billion people do not even have access to electricity, let alone Internet..

More people have access to the Internet via cell phones worldwide than have access to a flush toilet.  Access to electricity is not a pre-requisite.