Will Bitcoin Transaction Verification Ever Slow to a Standstill?

[dmonaldo]

So I've been trying to wrap my head around this. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

If the difficulty level increases exponentially, then this means that the time between finding blocks will increase as well, correct? And if the process of mining blocks is what verifies transactions, then won't the time to verify a transaction increase to a point of being useless?

Also, how will transactions be verified in the distant future when the blocks have been mined? And on top of that, won't the worldwide number of bitcoins slowly decrease due to lost private keys?

[jellies]

you got it back to front.

difficulty changes SUCH THAT the blocks are found at roughly 8 minute intervals.
Of course that is the average over many samples, so there can be several blocks in a row or nothing for 30 minutes, but difficulty steps up or down such that on average that is the output. At any time.

It is exponential now because people are adding exponential mining power.

[dmonaldo]

Thanks jellies,

Also, how will transactions be verified in the distant future when the blocks have been mined? And on top of that, after all the blocks have been mined, won't the worldwide number of bitcoins slowly decrease due to lost private keys?

[jellies]

miners will mine for transaction fees.

There seems to be some concerns around how that will pan out.

yes the total number of bitcoins will decline, and do so before the point at which the last bitcoin has been mined.

If you think of someone losing access to a wallet with 100 bitcoins in it, then there is subtle deflation from time to time already, as it would take half an hour to replace that loss but the loss happens instantly.

[dmonaldo]

Okay, that makes sense.

Thanks for clearing that up for me 

[konstantin718]

If you think of someone losing access to a wallet with 100 bitcoins in it, then there is subtle deflation from time to time already, as it would take half an hour to replace that loss but the loss happens instantly.

Wait a min! Replace that loss? Once the private key is lost, any "coins" (really, transactions in the blockchain) encrypted by that private key are "gone" (really, frozen from being spent) forever, there's no replacing them.

[btcton]

If you think of someone losing access to a wallet with 100 bitcoins in it, then there is subtle deflation from time to time already, as it would take half an hour to replace that loss but the loss happens instantly.

Wait a min! Replace that loss? Once the private key is lost, any "coins" (really, transactions in the blockchain) encrypted by that private key are "gone" (really, frozen from being spent) forever, there's no replacing them.

I think he means replace in the sense that that amount of BTC is mined in half an hour.

Also, someone above said that the target time between blocks is 8 minutes. I've heard about it being 10 minutes, any idea on what is the correct one?

[QuestionAuthority]

It's too bad bitcoin.it is gone. It had all the info you're looking for in an easy to understand format.