Total bitcoins limit

[Chooseusername]

Is total bitcoins limit is a software limitation, or there are mathematical barriers to make this limit bigger?

[1714968625]

1714968625

[1714968625]

1714968625

[Some Mouse]

Software, mostly. If you gave out too many you would risk hash collisions, however.

[raven1322]

Is total bitcoins limit is a software limitation, or there are mathematical barriers to make this limit bigger?

if I'm not mistaken there would only be a total of 21M bitcoin to be generated via hash or the miners. Not sure what would happen to the value by then.

[alex_rada]

Is total bitcoins limit is a software limitation, or there are mathematical barriers to make this limit bigger?

There are no mathematical or software barriers whatsoever. I recommend you read this post for a better understanding: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3366.msg47843#msg47843

[Aura]

The max supply is realized by a process called 'Halving' it simply does what it says it halves the reward for mining a block. At the very beginning this reward was an amount of 50 BTC, after 210.000 blocks were mined this reward halved to 25 BTC. It happens every 210,000 blocks, which is equal to about 4 years when you assume that blocks are mined every 10 minutes. The current block reward is 12,5 BTC, approximate mid June 2020 the reward will halve again to 6,25 BTC. More information including a countdown timer can be found on http://www.bitcoinblockhalf.com/ .

[heureca]

The max supply is realized by a process called 'Halving' it simply does what it says it halves the reward for mining a block. At the very beginning this reward was an amount of 50 BTC, after 210.000 blocks were mined this reward halved to 25 BTC. It happens every 210,000 blocks, which is equal to about 4 years when you assume that blocks are mined every 10 minutes. The current block reward is 12,5 BTC, approximate mid June 2020 the reward will halve again to 6,25 BTC. More information including a countdown timer can be found on http://www.bitcoinblockhalf.com/ .

Good explanation I think it will be some problems with mining soon - at least for personal users it already occurred)

[Aura]

The max supply is realized by a process called 'Halving' it simply does what it says it halves the reward for mining a block. At the very beginning this reward was an amount of 50 BTC, after 210.000 blocks were mined this reward halved to 25 BTC. It happens every 210,000 blocks, which is equal to about 4 years when you assume that blocks are mined every 10 minutes. The current block reward is 12,5 BTC, approximate mid June 2020 the reward will halve again to 6,25 BTC. More information including a countdown timer can be found on http://www.bitcoinblockhalf.com/ .

Good explanation I think it will be some problems with mining soon - at least for personal users it already occurred)

Thank you. You're right, Bitcoin mining is getting really expensive lately. I think that's because there are currently only 2 companies that manufacture these ASIC miners, they can manipulate the price as they want it because they have monopoly. It's quite bad for the decentralization that GPUs got useless when mining Bitcoin as these were publicly available and could be used in every price-class. Let's hope the the growing tendency to more expensive mining equipment gets tackled.

[Oulay]

It's a software limit. It can be changed but they won't change it.

[Herbert2020]

It's a software limit. It can be changed but they won't change it.

who is this "they" you are talking about?
it is code and anybody can change it, it has already been done by many people. for example https://yobit.net/en/trade/SMART/BTC is one of them with 21 billion coins as its max supply if i am not mistaken. the thing is, when you change the code you create an altcoin unless the majority of the bitcoin network accepts your change and switches to it, it will remain an altcoin. otherwise anyone can change the limits and variables, consensus rules so to speak.

[legenduim]

Is total bitcoins limit is a software limitation, or there are mathematical barriers to make this limit bigger?

if I'm not mistaken there would only be a total of 21M bitcoin to be generated via hash or the miners. Not sure what would happen to the value by then.

As I suppose when this limit is reached, Bitcoin will not die, but it will be not so expensive like now. Yes, BTC will live on the market of crypto, but its positions will be weakened by more powerful crypto, for instance Ethereum.

[Lucius]

Is total bitcoins limit is a software limitation, or there are mathematical barriers to make this limit bigger?

if I'm not mistaken there would only be a total of 21M bitcoin to be generated via hash or the miners. Not sure what would happen to the value by then.

As I suppose when this limit is reached, Bitcoin will not die, but it will be not so expensive like now. Yes, BTC will live on the market of crypto, but its positions will be weakened by more powerful crypto, for instance Ethereum.

We should not worry about that,unless you plan to live until 2140 when all BTC will be mined,of course if it still existed then.But most of us will be alive around year 2032 when almost 99% BTC will be mined,that 1% will stay for next 100+ years.

Creator of BTC is very smart person and he is set total limit to 21 million for good reason,this i just a code which could be changed anytime.But I hope this will never happen,some things should stay just as they are.

[Thyristor]

Bitcoin has fixed limits of supply, which means only a certain number of bitcoins will ever be available.the maximum number of total Bitcoins cannot exceed 21 million & corresponds to the 4-year reward halving time schedule.

[automaticmoney]

Total Bitcoins limit is 21 million in that 80 percent are already in circulation in market