WHY 21 MILLION BITCOIN CANNOT SERVE THE WHOLE WORLD

[Lawrenzoo]

When we talk of bitcoin supply, we look at it as 21 million bitcoin, and people wonder how that can serve the whole 7 billion population, but we forgot that there are smaller units of bitcoin, we have the mbtc, we have the ubtc and we have the satoshi, and i will like to talk on the satoshi which i believe needs to be expanded to really serve the current economy.

SATOSHI,
This is the smallest units of bitcoin, and 1 bitcoin is equals to 100,000,000 satoshis, which means that the total satoshi that we have is 2100 thrillion satoshis.

The total circulating money of the world according to According to the Bank for International Settlements is 80 trillion dollars, the lowest denomination of usd is cent and 100 cent equals 1 dollar, so we have 8000 trillion cent circulating as money in the world, if satoshi is to be pegged to 1 cent and to be used as global currency, you see why it is necessary to have it expanded, because circulating money of the world will be short of about 5900 trillion satoshis.

[ralle14]

You're only saying that we don't have enough bitcoin supply for everyone because you're fixing the price of a satoshi to a cent but that's not the case here. If everyone starts buying bitcoin and most people use them as a currency, the value of a satoshi should be more than a cent.

Not all 21 million bitcoins could be used by everyone but we still have enough for everyone because off chain you can still divide satoshi in to smaller units called millisatoshi.

[Janation]

And that is the more reason why we don't need to expand or increase the total supply.

The lower the supply, the higher the demand and that also means the higher the price of it. Another thing is that not a lot of people will be using Bitcoin since most of them will stick to the traditional payment method. Don't also forget that there are a lot of Bitcoins lost in the total supply, that means the total supply is not really 21 million by now.

[deisik]

When we talk of bitcoin supply, we look at it as 21 million bitcoin, and people wonder how that can serve the whole 7 billion population, but we forgot that there are smaller units of bitcoin, we have the mbtc, we have the ubtc and we have the satoshi, and i will like to talk on the satoshi which i believe needs to be expanded to really serve the current economy

These and similar thoughts had been mainstream here like 4-5 years ago

When people really believed that Bitcoin can substitute fiat currencies one day (and that day was not too far in the future) and seriously expressed concerns that Bitcoin's denomination won't suffice and thus should be expanded to, say, 16 figures after the decimal point (instead of outright increasing the total supply)

Now such ideas seem completely out of place (and time) as Bitcoin is not serving the world even in its present state. Sorry if this is not what you wanted to hear but it is better to see what is really going on, however unpleasant it might be. Other than that, what you suggest is what altcoins already do, effectively expanding Bitcoin's supply

[13abyknight]

The price of a Bitcoin ever since it existed has clearly been on the rise. We are pretty close to the 21 million cap and when I mean "pretty close", it might take anywhere between a year to ten to reach the maximum supply and when this eventually happens, the price of a Bitcoin could possibly be so high that a satoshi could even be a worth a dollar.

[gentlemand]

Now such ideas seem completely out of place (and time) as Bitcoin is not serving the world even in its present state. Sorry if this is not what you wanted to hear but it is better to see what is really going on, however unpleasant it might be. Other than that, what you suggest is what altcoins already do, effectively expanding Bitcoin's supply

There's no point in any of us guessing where it's going to end up. It's early days still and anything could happen. This current period is a phase that'll pass. There'll be many more users who'll find many more uses.

The most likely scenario for more units being needed is machine to machine lightning network type stuff. That might become a reality without it getting anywhere near replacing a fiat currency.

[mersal]

For now the acceptance of bitcoin is lacking not its supply,we can discuss about the demand or shortage of bitcoin if there is any.Surely people will be using satoshi units over bitcoin if everyone adopted to crypto currency and bitcoin becomes mainstream currency.We also don't have to forget that we have some potential altcoins as well which can be used for crypto payments as well.

[mersal]

It's true that this amount of Bitcoin is not enough for the whole world but at the end this is not necessary. Not all people are interested in using Bitcoin and Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will never replace fiat currencies, that is not possible, so I can't see the reason to be worried about.

But if there is a situation everyone started to use cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin become the most preferable crypto still we can use it for the whole well because the smallest unit of Bitcoin is satoshi that is what op is trying to say.

I don't know why you are saying cryptocurrencies will never replace Fiat there are high chances for cryptos to replace most of the banking system in near future.

[rdluffy]

We should be realistic in this subject
BTC is not the ideal coin to everyone use around the world, BTC is not easy to use as cash or credit card, a HUGE amount of people doesn't even have access to internet, PCs or smartphones etc
And even with BTC satoshis, it's not enought to serve the world

[mersal]

We should be realistic in this subject
BTC is not the ideal coin to everyone use around the world, BTC is not easy to use as cash or credit card, a HUGE amount of people doesn't even have access to internet, PCs or smartphones etc
And even with BTC satoshis, it's not enought to serve the world

If you think in that way then why you are still here on bitcointalk and discussing about cryptocurrencies,the reason of cryptocurrency is to eliminate centralised payment system and bring the real value to the the money which we are using.

Internet is almost available everywhere and in future it will be in every corner because we are planning to move to Mars.

[Vishnu.Reang]

After 20 or 30 years, if the community feels that the circulating supply (21 million coins or 2.1 quadrillion Satoshis) is not large enough, then the community can always split the existing Satoshis to smaller ones by a hard fork. But honestly I don't think that the purpose will arise anytime soon. At least not until BTC overtakes gold in market capitalization.

[TheCoinGrabber]

After 20 or 30 years, if the community feels that the circulating supply (21 million coins or 2.1 quadrillion Satoshis) is not large enough, then the community can always split the existing Satoshis to smaller ones by a hard fork. But honestly I don't think that the purpose will arise anytime soon. At least not until BTC overtakes gold in market capitalization.

I think 2.1Q is enough but even then people can probably find workarounds like the off-chain splitting ralle mentioned.

If all else fails then there's alts. In a world where bitcoin is the main currency, alts would definitely play a larger role than they do today. People can simply convert their satoshi into some other alt and just use that for transaction.

[gentlemand]

If all else fails then there's alts. In a world where bitcoin is the main currency, alts would definitely play a larger role than they do today. People can simply convert their satoshi into some other alt and just use that for transaction.

A world where a Satoshi is too expensive means that Bitcoin will have absolutely dominated everything. Alts will be innumerable and almost all worthless. I really can't see people being willing to move into something that's going to be vastly more volatile that most people will reject when they attempt to pay for something with it.

[mindrust]

Currently I believe, the smallest tx fee you can set on a transaction is 1sat/byte.

Again I believe, It is possible to set sub satoshi amounts as a fee. It is not being used now because miners don't accept those transactions. (I am pretty sure I've seen transactions with 0.1sat/byte before)

If bitcoin becomes too valuable, people will start demanding those sub satoshi fees and miners will have to accept those transactions.

Correct me if I am wrong. The only reason why we can't send 500 satoshis for 5sat fee is because the miners don't accept those tx's.

Instead of increasing the total supply, we better find a way to use sub satoshi fees.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

OP, this idea has been brought up before--I've seen it talked about a few times since I've been on the forum.  And anyone who knows anything basic about bitcoin knows how divisible it is.  It isn't like everyone would need to own a whole bitcoin in order for it to be useful.

And by the way, if bitcoin ever became inadequate for worldwide use because there wasn't enough of it to go around, there are still hundreds of other cryptocurrencies on the market that could step in and fill the void.  Hell, dogecoin doesn't have a cap on the total number of coins and it could easily be used as a currency--and it's not the only one, either.

IMO, adoption isn't catching up to supply in crypto.  There's more than enough to go around.

[breathlessz]

I don't think it's not able to serve the whole world, but every country has different problems to legitimize bitcoin. the more countries that use it the higher the price, while the supply will always be the same. unfortunately there are still few countries that legalize it, so there are lots of whales playing

[sandra_x]

The quantity of bitcoin that will ever be mined is not really of huge importance, it is the economy it supports. 1 satoshi (or 1/100 millionth of a bitcoin ) is a lot to go round. That is small enough for practical use even if bitcoin is the only currency globally, it may mean 1 satoshi becomes 100 usd if the need be

[coiningz]

We need really high price for 1 btc if we want by something on one satoshi

[1Referee]

1 Bitcoin = 100,000,000 satoshis on the main network.

1 Bitcoin = 10,000,000,000,000 satoshis on Lightning (1 main network satoshi = 1000 milli satoshi).

There will never be a shortage of satoshi units. There has been an auction last year where an 'art piece' has sold for 1 milli satoshi which back then was worth $0.000000037 in us dollar value. Obviously more of a publicity type of stunt, but it shows how small payments can actually be on Lightning.

It's much easier to deal with satoshis rather than 0.0000XBTC. It's only a matter of time before satoshis will become the main unit standard instead of BTC.

[Mahanton]

If all else fails then there's alts. In a world where bitcoin is the main currency, alts would definitely play a larger role than they do today. People can simply convert their satoshi into some other alt and just use that for transaction.

A world where a Satoshi is too expensive means that Bitcoin will have absolutely dominated everything. Alts will be innumerable and almost all worthless. I really can't see people being willing to move into something that's going to be vastly more volatile that most people will reject when they attempt to pay for something with it.

Volatility would always be the main issue that's why no matter how positive I am with Bitcoin it wont really come to a point to reach that full adoption worldwide lets say 100% on the entire population.They wont mind on jumping into something which is volatile and for sure majority would just stick into that traditional fiat currencies we have knowns and also I  don't stress out myself if there would be sufficient supply of bitcoin incase that thing happens.