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June 20, 2017, 10:04:02 PM |
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Say the year is 2140 and miners are no longer receiving block rewards, only Tx fees. How do we know that these Tx fees will always make mining a profitable endeavor? Especially considering that block sizes are currently hard-coded and we don't know the impact of second-layer solutions?
Will something need to change in the meantime to guarantee this? For instance, a blocksize scaling mechanism that ensures that there is suitable demand for block space? Or will the users slowly take network security into their own hands and run distributed and/or embedded miners to decentralize the currency and not care whether or not the mining is profitable?
What happens if we develop a technology that provides everyone with unlimited free energy? Do we 'globalize' bitcoin?
It's questions like these that make me really trust the long-term prospects of PoS more than PoW, since we can continue to use self-interest and greed to improve the network indefinitely without needing to be cognizant of large-scale changes in how society functions.
Maybe this is more of a philosophical discussion.
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