Who will process transactions when we'll hit 21MBTC?

[collac]

we wont be here to see that happening !! enjoy it now while you can !

[btcney]

Maybe it's a newbie question, but I suddenly thought about it.
In a few years (in terms of history), about 100 years, all the 21 million bitcoins will be on the market.
then, miner will get only transaction fees for processing the blockchain and no reward.
I believe that many of the miners will find it not profitable, and will quit out.
What do you think will happen then?

first of all, we can never really hit 21 million bitcoins. Bitcoin block rewards will half every 4 years or so(210000 blocks), which means that it'll be infinitely closer to 21 million every year but it'll never hit 21 million bitcoins.

To answer your question - bitcoin miners right now are already getting a lot more in transaction fees in lieu of decreasing bitcoin block rewards. This will be even more so in the future when block rewards further decrease.

[ged00u]

They will not receive reward per block anymore but they will receive bitcoin as the transaction fee which is high enough for them to continue mining bitcoin. Well, if no one wants to confirm transactions anymore, I think we will move to other crypto and bitcoin will not be used anymore. Let's hope that this situation will not happen.

[merchantofzeny]

It seems to me that the intention was that should that time ever come, miners would be earning from transactions alone. If every coin has been mined out, then the amount in circulation would be stable. Hard to tell what the price would be but I suppose there'd be less volatility.

[bitcoinvestor]

I think the developers of bitcoin has thought about that. Not worry about that, now the fee minimum is 0.001 to make quick transaction, below that your bitcoin will be slow. If bitcoin prices touch $10000 to $15000. I think the miners will stil get profit from transaction fee reward. How much is 0.001 x 15000 = 150 US. I think to pay the electric bill is still enough for the miners. Or at least many bitcoin community still mine bitcoin for no p rofit. Don't worry about that.  

[bluefirecorp]

I believe that many of the miners will find it not profitable, and will quit out.

This is where you go wrong. That's a food for thought no doubt but there will always be a way to figure out the obstacles before it really happens. As we are not hitting the dead mark right now and there is ample time to find a probable solution for it, we will definitely find a way out.

When all bitcoins got mined out, you cannot imagine what will be the price of one bitcoins. I assume one bitcoin may value 100 million dollars, it means one satoshi = 1 USD. At the same time the transaction volume also will be in huge numbers so there will be enough possibilities for miners to earn better than what they are earning right now.

[skorupi17]

Still, the transaction processes will be handled by miners. Some might quit mining since there is no block bonus at that moment. The only possible way is to increase the block size so that more transaction will be processed at a time then the miner will gain from the process. Also, the transaction fee will be increased. These are the only possible way to make miners process transaction after the last bitcoin was mined.

[Gotottack]

I had the same question as OP before I read this thread. From reading here I realize that it was still possible. Since the miners profit from "block rewards" this means that it is actually just some sort of "reward" which in time will decrease until it becomes zero. Then miners will only find blocks and not really be rewarded anymore. So I guess when block rewards goes to 0, then the miners will be mining for the fees. I can't imagine though how much fees will we be paying at that time and how long will each miner find a new block.

[bitcoindusts]

Miners as usual, it was designed that way since Satoshi visioned that by the time all Bitcoins are mined, the market are already saturated and that a block will give a reward that is more than the initial reward of 50 BTC due to the number of people doing bitcoin transactions and paying transaction fee. 

[Lampaster]

I think it's not a problem. Any computer on the network can process the transaction. I'm sure there are many who earn a few Satoshi in parallel with the work on the computer. For me the important thing is to improve circulation of currency and can be in any country without leaving home to earn money.

[lighpulsar07]

According to the bitcoin whitepaper the block rewards halves every four years until the final coin was mined and no more rewards will be distributed (correct me if i were wrong) right? I guess the miners will rely on the transaction fees but i think it will be pretty high if you compared the situation today and in the future without block rewards