After all Bitcoins are minted?

[jmevz]

Hi,

What happens once all Bitcoins are minted? Will they release a new batch or simply pay us a fee for processing transactions? From memory 21 Bitcoins are currently available to be minted, with 11 Billion minted to date with 10 Billion still to be minted.

Sorry if this has been posted previously.

Cheers,
Jeff

[Monetizer]

Just to clear up confusion: There will only ever be 21 million bitcoins that will only be minted by 2160 (Or around then)

[gweedo]

Yes transactions volumes will be so great that miners will still want to mine. 21 Million will ever exist and if they change that, then it isn't bitcoin.

[jmevz]

Sorry if I sound naive here, but if we're currently rewarded with newly minted coins, who will pay us for transactions once all coins are minted in the future? If that makes sense... I'm guessing the buyers/sellers/traders?

[mprep]

Sorry if I sound naive here, but if we're currently rewarded with newly minted coins, who will pay us for transactions once all coins are minted in the future? If that makes sense... I'm guessing the buyers/sellers/traders?

when you send a transaction you send a fee usually. This is will grow and with the volume of transactions it will be a good amount to keep miners happy.

Pretty much yeah unless the fees become to small to pay for the electricity used by mining.

[cryptoswag]

What is the schedule for the fee escalation? My understanding is that blocks are currently awarded for confirming transactions on the block chain. Once all the blocks are released, the fee would have to be pretty high (comparable to the cost of btc blocks) to keep people confirming the transactions...

[dillpicklechips]

What is the schedule for the fee escalation? My understanding is that blocks are currently awarded for confirming transactions on the block chain. Once all the blocks are released, the fee would have to be pretty high (comparable to the cost of btc blocks) to keep people confirming the transactions...

I actually think the fees will slowly replace block rewards slowly and without too much planning and will just happen organically. As Bitcoin grows, so will total fees. Perhaps the block reward with fees included may never go under 15 BTC. (Who knows what the minimum will be though..) The free market at work!

[Markov]

So basically you could be a miner for the rest of your life if you wanted? Cool

[dillpicklechips]

So basically you could be a miner for the rest of your life if you wanted? Cool

Ya it's pretty kick ass. I'm sure the miners 20 years from now will have some pretty sweet machines!

[jdany]

Please correct me here if any of my math isn't right.

The current block size can support roughly 7 transaction per second.
I pay .005 BTC per transaction when I send.
---
.035 BTC paid to the network per second

420 transactions per minute = 2.1 BTC per minute

Per second = .035 BTC
Per minute = 2.1 BTC
10 minutes = 21 BTC
Per day = 3024 BTC

Currently, 25 BTC are mined every 10 minutes.