What happens when we hit 21,000,000 bitcoins?

[GreenBits]

I suppose that Bitcoin will become a kind of gold bullion for individuals with much higher price than now as well as the blockchain technology will transform into Fort Knox. If seriously, I think there are too many possible options and we cannot predict the exact one.

I actually hold with the new guy here Cryptos are now a feature, so I don't expect us to be using bitcoin like a Fiat into the far future. Something bigger and better will certainly come along, that encompasses the best of bitcoin and the best of fiat. What I see for long term BTC is; the trust in the protocol grows to a level where people equate bitcoin with 'digital gold'. When I say good, I am trying to evoke the trust that gold has garnered over the ages. For the trader, the liquidity of bitcoin is vastly superior to gold, I can see the 20k plus valuations actually making sense at that point. Bitcoin may even become a collector's item, given the scarcity.

[perfect999]

If bitcoin will be mined all of them then the miners will be just getting profits from confirming the different transactions because the miners are the only one who can validate transactions and they can still get profit via bitcoin by doing that. Miners will never leave bitcoin because the fees from transactions is the key to stay in profitable business.

How can I skip this point? Thank you so much. Your comment has actually solved one of my puzzles. You are very right. Everything will be the same as it is now. Bitcoins will be still around and the only thing that will change will be the sellers. Otherwise, the picture remains the same even after interval and I am happy with that.

[Chrystora123]

I think nothing happens if The Bitcoin algorithm breaks till 21.000.000 Bitcoin because other coins still waiting to mine, like Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash, and many other of them, this is my opinion.  I ever think whether miners will continue to mine if the Bitcoin mining product touches 21 million Bitcoin..

[TheGodson]

I believe that Bitcoin will adapt with time. There is also the pending danger of deflation which could destroy the global economy. In the long run though, technology will advance to a point where Bitcoin is a completely different thing. In fact, mining might not be necessary at all.

[Betwrong]

This morning I was talking about this with a buddy of mine.

Right now we have miners all over the world trying to solve this exponentially hard algorithm to earn their bitcoins. That is their incentive and that is what drives them to do so.

What happens when we remove that incentive to "mine" aka "verify transactions" on the blockchain? What I'm basically asking is what happens when we hit 21,000,000 bitcoins from the perspective of the miners?

Don't forget the transaction fees which miners also get. These days, for example, miners get around $2 million in transaction fees daily. Miners will always have a good reason to mine, because the reward is pretty big.

Also don't forget that we are talking about things here which won't happen during our lifetime. The last Bitcoins will be mined in 2110–2140.

[prakashghai]

I guess the price could then simply explode higher and higher

demand and supply is always a factor in price.

[denetci]

basic economics, demand will remain but supply will finish. that will make huge impact to prices, day by day btc will much valuable like today. if btc is not bubble, we will all rich community

[MostHigh]

When we get to 21,000,000 bitcoins then mining becomes irrelevant and the prices will inflate or deflate base on demand and supply just like any other commodity but i strongly believe were are going to see a lot of splits along the way hence it will take an awful late of time to exhaust all the bitcoins in the blockchain

[MiF]

This morning I was talking about this with a buddy of mine.

Right now we have miners all over the world trying to solve this exponentially hard algorithm to earn their bitcoins. That is their incentive and that is what drives them to do so.

What happens when we remove that incentive to "mine" aka "verify transactions" on the blockchain? What I'm basically asking is what happens when we hit 21,000,000 bitcoins from the perspective of the miners?

If it will reach the 21 millions bitcoins then another cryptocoin were going to be mine and will have the chance to arise maybe it will be the ethreum because it was 2nd to bitcoin. But still bitcoin will exist because we always aim for bitcoin only the value of each countries will vary.

[Silberman]

the game will end after that. If there is no more big events related with bitcoin, or just stay in there because there is no more supply price will be increase more, people will get less interest with bitcoin, maybe before that happens there is already a new choice from people to replace bitcoin.

Not true, people are going to keep being interested in bitcoin when that happens also if the transaction fees are not enough to support the miners I’m sure some of them are going to move to another coin that they can mine and obtain profits that way, then the difficulty of bitcoin goes down and that makes the miners profitable once again, so I think you are wrong in your assessment.

[StevenS]

Look at this chart from blockchain.info. It shows that over the past year, minors make maybe 300 BTC in a typical day in transaction fees. Notice also that this is trending upwards. Compare this to 1800 BTC per day in base block rewards.

Let's make a conservative assumption that transaction fees will stay at least 200 BTC per day for the next 12 years. We know that before 12 years have passed, the base block reward will decrease to 225 BTC per day. At this point transaction fees will be about half of the mining income. Past that time, when most of us will still be active with Bitcoin, the block reward won't matter much anymore, because it will be a minor part of the total block reward.

At that point, we can stop asking the OP question.

[eaLiTy]

What happens when we remove that incentive to "mine" aka "verify transactions" on the blockchain? What I'm basically asking is what happens when we hit 21,000,000 bitcoins from the perspective of the miners?

This is a doubt that has being asked many times here,hope you are aware of the transaction charges with every transaction,right now the block reward is 12.5 bitcoin and with the transaction charges they will be earning around 16 to 20 bitcoin with every block including the transaction charges and after all the coins are mined they will still earn the transaction charges,so it keeps on rolling as long as they have the incentives to run the miners.

[hisuka]

I think nothing happen if The Bitcoin alogarithm breaks till 21.000.000 Bitcoin , because another coins still waiting to mine , like Ethereum , Litecoin , Dash , and many other of them , this is my opini ,
I ever think , whether miner will continue to mine if Bitcoin mining product touches 21 million Bitcoin ..

This will give a big impact on the bitcoin. Yes the demand is increase and another coins will be release for sure. But still there are many users in bitcoin when that arrives.

[Ngewex Yuk]

no problem, bitcoin stock is enough for worldwide transactions, the price of 1 btc is currently around $ 4600 and if all is done mined then the price will reach 1 satoshi = $ 1.

[redsun114]

If bitcoin will be mined all of them then the miners will be just getting profits from confirming the different transactions because the miners are the only one who can validate transactions and they can still get profit via bitcoin by doing that. Miners will never leave bitcoin because the fees from transactions is the key to stay in profitable business.

How can I skip this point? Thank you so much. Your comment has actually solved one of my puzzles. You are very right. Everything will be the same as it is now. Bitcoins will be still around and the only thing that will change will be the sellers. Otherwise, the picture remains the same even after interval and I am happy with that.

Exactly I have same confusion in my mind about this. What make the bitcoins more important and famous are the sellers. Bitcoins are increasing and they will continue going up all the times with intervals. Sellers will be the reason behind the change in crypto world.

[nkarm1]

no problem, bitcoin stock is enough for worldwide transactions, the price of 1 btc is currently around $ 4600 and if all is done mined then the price will reach 1 satoshi = $ 1.

I don't think so. When all those btc are mined, you can't assume that Miners that are solving heavy algorithms will be willing to work with no sure reward? Working for transaction fees? The transaction fee could affect the user for they have to pay for it mandatory. Where in other altcoins you don't have to.

If there are less miners, the transaction will be as slow as you can imagine. Also this will affect the users, they might switch to other alternative coins for fast transactions. So in this scenario, less demand, low price.

[Halcyon Days]

The fact, that the miners will still mine for transaction fees is indeed interesting. This might mean, that the price goes even higher, if this should remain profitable for the miners. I wonder, if the overall hashing power drops in favor for other altcoins, or if it keeps improving. Is there any estimated date for the last block to be mined?

[duyduc256]

For me. The price of Bitcoin will increase dramatically at that moment because if you want to buy Bitcoin you will surely have a lot of difficulties because Bitcoin will cost more than $ 100,000, so keeping Bitcoin at this moment is very important.

[senin]

If all 21,000,000 bitcoins are mined, its value, I think, will increase due to the fact that it will Ьbe used mainly as a means of accumulation, like digital gold.

[winderx]

thats the end of bitcoin generated, so the price will go up