Will the need to increase BTC's max supply arise in the future?

[Abiky]

It is unlikely that any of us will be around to see the subsidy drop to 0, but some of us may witness the point at which there is only 1 bitcoin left to be mined (in 80 years), and most of us will be around to see the subsidy drop below 1 BTC per block (in 10 years).

That's certainly true, mate. Honestly, there's no need to worry about raising the max supply for the foreseeable future. As you've said earlier, most of us won't be able to live by the time all Bitcoins are mined. AFAIK, there will exist a total of 21 quadrillion satoshis on the BTC blockchain. That's more than enough for the world's current population. With plenty Bitcoins for everyone, I think the hard cap of 21 million coins is perfect. In the future, people might be dealing with satoshis due to high prices on the market. It's expected that the Lightning Network will be stable enough to make people use satoshis for micropayments and such. For large money transfers, people will use the main Bitcoin blockchain for added security and reliability.

If Bitcoin continues to grow in popularity and mainstream adoption, then it'll survive way beyond the year of 2100. Miners will be living off Bitcoin's fees, as prices become a lot more higher than what they are right now. With years of success, Bitcoin can remain a truly unstoppable store of value for the whole wide world to enjoy. Raising the max supply beyond 21 million coins will only make matters worse. Just my thoughts

[ufaiz50]

Can it add supply to the fixed blockchain chain? This is too far away to think about as we still have little information about the future to aim for. Hard forks, 8 decimal bitcoins, reward transactions, stabilization and many more things that we haven't been able to add to the blockchain supply. I think it's better to wait another 50 years, if what you say by 2100 the max supply of bitcoin has already been mined.

[goldade]

Although this is too far away to determine now, I think there will be need to increase Bitcoin's max supply in the future. With increasing adoption of bitcoin over the coming years, with a large percentage of these people keeping bitcoins as a store of value and not as a currency which would keep it in circulation, there would be need to increase the limited 21 million supply of coins into circulation.
This might invoke the need for a much better and higher technology and codes, it will inevitably have to happen. Besides, technology is evolving and we will get to that bridge where we've exhausted the limited coins, we'll cross it.

[Detrix]

After all the 21 million BTCs are mined - estimated at the year 2140, two scenarios are likely to occur. The first one involves miners abandoning their work since there won't be any rewards except transaction fees. Since miners are at the core of decentralization, this may force the centralization of BTC or its total collapse. A second scenario is where BTC's value is high enough and transaction fees are high as well. Here, miners can live off transaction fees and BTC continues. Hopefully, the second scenario comes to pass.

[Abiky]

Although this is too far away to determine now, I think there will be need to increase Bitcoin's max supply in the future. With increasing adoption of bitcoin over the coming years, with a large percentage of these people keeping bitcoins as a store of value and not as a currency which would keep it in circulation, there would be need to increase the limited 21 million supply of coins into circulation.
This might invoke the need for a much better and higher technology and codes, it will inevitably have to happen. Besides, technology is evolving and we will get to that bridge where we've exhausted the limited coins, we'll cross it.

Honestly, I think Bitcoin is (and will do) fine with a max supply of 21 million coins. That's largely because Bitcoin is divisible up to 8 decimal units. There are 21 quadrillion satoshis for anyone to use in the mainstream world. That's more than enough to satisfy the world's population. Increasing the supply to a higher value will do more harm than good to the price of Bitcoin on the market. Even if Bitcoin's supply remains the same, it has already been theoretically expanded by the number of Bitcoin-based forks that emerged since 2017. Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV both have a max supply of 21 million coins with the same protocol as Bitcoin (only with a few minor modifications). Bitcoin holders prior to the Bitcoin Cash hard fork in August 2017, have now doubled their coins on competing blockchain networks. If we were to perform calculations, Bitcoin has effectively increased its max supply to 63 million coins (which is the sum of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Bitcoin SV's 21 million coin supply).

If prices become a lot higher than what they are right now, we could expect people to deal with "satoshis" instead of a Bitcoin or 1/10 of a Bitcoin. With the Lightning Network already gaining traction, it's possible to send satoshis across the blockchain at a fraction of the cost. At least, we won't need to worry about Bitcoin's max supply during the course of its lifetime. Just my opinion