What happens when mining is no longer profitable or all coins are mined?

[bdog1234]

Lots of good replies. I get what many of your are saying in that people will drop out, difficulty will readjust, they will get back in, etc.

I guess my concern is from my basic understanding the miners are the ones that process and confirm transactions. It seems there are a ton of miners now, only 15 million bitcoins in circulation and somewhat widespread use but no where near what I anticipate it will be. Transactions don't take forever but aren't really fast either. As more coins are mined, use becomes more widespread, it seems this transaction time will increase. Then if difficulty increases and miners drop out it will get worse possibly to the point where they are not practical to use.

Don't misunderstand me I am very pro bitcoin and don't see this as an issue anytime soon this just seems like a potential flaw. As the use and outstanding coins increase the whole system requires a ton of nodes to sustain and what if it isn't economically viable for them to do so.

[qwertyup23]

Not going to happen any time soon but eventually the difficulty will be so hard that it is no longer profitable. Even if technology advances to where it is what about when all 21 million are mined?

We have seen the slow down in transaction times recently when people pulled off to mine BCC.

I know there are transaction fees but they are not that lucrative. When the big boys pull out of mining and there lots more coins in circulation how will the network function? Will it be super slow or transaction fees ultra high to keep it going?

Again I don't see this as any immediate concern but what about in ten years?

Well that may be a problem in the future but as far as I know, there are like ~3-5 million bitcoins still left to mine. That will maybe take about 8 years estimated but if in the event that all of those coins are mined out, then the law of supply and demand will reign the price of bitcoin. This would likely result to a skyrocket in the price of the bitcoins, and that is why people need to start investing and saving these coins for long term investments. Don't get me wrong, we may have different uses for bitcoin but saving some wouldn't be probably bad.

[Kevin77]

I think the value of bitcoin will soar high because of the law of supply and demand. If the demand is high by that time since all bitcoins were already mined, its become more and more valuable.

A nice thread by the way! I have also thought about it once or twice. If all bitcoins are mined that means no more bitcoins are available to be possessed until or unless we buy it from someone else. There can be many consequences, the value will definitely shoot up but everyone will have his own value. Bitcoins is not controlled by anyone so there is actually no policy formulated for it that can cause chaos ultimately.

[Vikingr]

Once all coins are mined I would imagine that prices will skyrocket in to the galaxy.

There is no need imagine about it bro it is a done fact that its values will be increased. If all bitcoin get mined there will be no other source to buy bitcoin. People will try to buy them directly but and the demand will become higher and higher. If it happens then that time will be the peak value time for bitcoin. And I think that at that time people will stop using bitcoin and that will be the downfall for bitcoin.