Is the world running out of Bitcoin?

[Hsibalimrn]

Hello everyone,

Unlike fiat currency like the U.S. dollar – as the Federal Reserve can simply decide to print more banknotes – Bitcoin’s supply is finite: BTC has a maximum supply embedded in its design, of which roughly 89 percent had been reached in April 2021. It is believed that Bitcoin will run out by 2040, despite more powerful mining equipment. This is because mining becomes exponentially more difficult and power-hungry every four years, a part of Bitcoin’s original design. Because of this, a Bitcoin mining transaction could equal the energy consumption of a small country in 2021.
I found these topics in an article, I hope the opinion of experts in this regard.

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[Dunamisx]

Hello everyone,

Unlike fiat currency like the U.S. dollar – as the Federal Reserve can simply decide to print more banknotes – Bitcoin’s supply is finite: BTC has a maximum supply embedded in its design, of which roughly 89 percent had been reached in April 2021. It is believed that Bitcoin will run out by 2040, despite more powerful mining equipment.

If eventually all bitcoin have been mined in the later future, what did you think about the bitcoin in circulation, that the mined coins will all be burned? No,  but rather be in circulation and this will spike high the demand for it as no more new coin is being mined and the ones in circulation will definitely be in high demand, while by then having bitcoin would have been as precious as being in procession of a precious stone, the prize would have been so high in value and it relevance would have been more generally acceptable than ever.

And by that 2040 as suggested, it will do you good if before then you've been in possession of your own bitcoin because if the mining reached limit, then the ones in circulation will be highly demanded for regardless of how much.

[DannyHamilton]

It is believed that Bitcoin will run out by 2040,

No.  This is not correct.
New bitcoins will continue to be created for more than another 100 years.

This is because mining becomes exponentially more difficult and power-hungry every four years,

No. This is not correct.
It is because the amount of new bitcoin that is allowed to exist in each new block of the blockchain is cut in half (and rounded down to the nearest satoshi) every 4 years.

Mining can become more difficult, or it can become easier.  The difficulty of mining is determined only by the total global amount of hashpower that is being applied to the process. Mining does not become more power-hungry. It actually has continued to use less and less power per hash over time.  It's just that more people have discovered the opportunity, and so, therefore, more equipment is being operated.

a Bitcoin mining transaction could equal the energy consumption of a small country in 2021.

No. This is not correct.
The mining process accomplishes MUCH more than just processing a single transaction.  It is disingenuous to try to apply to a single transaction the entire power used for securing and maintaining a global permissionless economic system.

I found these topics in an article, I hope the opinion of experts in this regard.

You found a BAD article.  Go, learn more and talk less.

[yohananaomi]

indeed there are only 21 million Bitcoin coins that can be mined. So what if it's over? This is, of course, the question raised.
According to research by blockchain.com, 18.89 million Bitcoins have been mined, and they are already circulating in the market. It took almost 12 years for Bitcoin to sell nearly 19 million coins.

Apparently as time goes by, less and less Bitcoins can be mined. By the 2030s, 97% of Bitcoins were already on the market, but another 3% would still take about 110 years to go down.

If Bitcoin becomes scarcer and then runs out, some investors believe that its price will actually go up. "What's more, Bitcoin is said to never really run out according to its enthusiasts, because there will always be someone willing to sell their Bitcoin," so bitcoin will always exist.

[Mauser]

No the world is not running out bitcoins. Everybody knew from the start that there is only a limited amount of Bitcoins to be mined. That is also what makes bitcoins so valuable. If we could just create new bitcoins out of thin air the price would never be as high as it is today. Being independent from governments that create the money supply is what makes cryptos so attractive to most investors. The maximum limit of Bitcoins is a great thing and we don't need to worry about it. The higher the price will be, the smaller the denominations we trade in. 1 BTC could be worth 1 million USD and we would still use it.

[Rikafip]

i It took almost 12 years for Bitcoin to sell nearly 19 million coins.

Sell? I guess you meant mine.

If Bitcoin becomes scarcer and then runs out, some investors believe that its price will actually go up.

Well that's logical, as if demand keeps going up while supply is limited of course price will go up.

What's more, Bitcoin is said to never really run out according to its enthusiasts, because there will always be someone willing to sell their Bitcoin, so bitcoin will always exist.

What's even more important is that satoshi is the smallest Bitcoin denomination so 21 million BTC can be divided into  2,100,000,000,000,000 satoshis which should be enough for quite a few years. And who knows, if needed we may get even smaller denominations so no worries about "running out of bitcoin".

[Pmalek]

It took almost 12 years for Bitcoin to sell nearly 19 million coins.

'Bitcoin' didn't sell anything. There is no entity called Bitcoin. 19 million (or more precisely 18.9 million) coins have been awarded as mining rewards. Many of those have been sold and changed hands, even multiple times. There are also addresses whose coins have never moved. Those units that we know belong to satoshi have never been sold, for example. And let's not forget the million dollars worth of BTC that are forever locked in addresses whose private keys have been lost.     

[mk4]

We'll only "run out" of bitcoin if it's the case that we already reach the maximum supply cap, and at the same time not a single bitcoin is being sold in the market — which is obviously NOT going to happen. Everyone's bitcoin has a price — whether it'd be the current price or slightly above it, $100k, $1m, etc.

[Accardo]

Even after the whole bitcoin gets mined 1BTC = 1BTC they will still be smaller and big transaction circulating in the market. People will not stop buying products with bitcoin because the whole bitcoin in the market has been mined. And remember Dollar is not the only currency in the world. Another currency (Fiat) can regain its value, and its worth to bitcoin will be better than Dollar - tagged to bitcoin price rate. For example; the price of bitcoin in Dollar is different from Euros and pounds. The more US keeps minting Dollar notes bitcoin price will keep soaring high at that time when it'll be scarce I think the price will skyrocket.

[btc78]

Hello everyone,

Unlike fiat currency like the U.S. dollar – as the Federal Reserve can simply decide to print more banknotes – Bitcoin’s supply is finite: BTC has a maximum supply embedded in its design, of which roughly 89 percent had been reached in April 2021. It is believed that Bitcoin will run out by 2040, despite more powerful mining equipment. This is because mining becomes exponentially more difficult and power-hungry every four years, a part of Bitcoin’s original design. Because of this, a Bitcoin mining transaction could equal the energy consumption of a small country in 2021.

yep it may taking long years now and when the mining needs to be more powerful and yet the bitcoin to be mined is limited .

I found these topics in an article, I hope the opinion of experts in this regard.

if you could be so kind to share that article here? because having said that you have read this then best to share this to us.

but this would be not a problem because the circulating supply ?  will always be there to be increasing in Value .

[SirLancelot]

So, you think that is the advantage of fiat because it has an unlimited supply? I think that was a disadvantage and that can cause for the fiats to be less valuable. Powerful mining equipment doesn't have the ability to increase the supply of btc but that can only make the supply drop faster because I think mining will now become faster the better the equipment have been used.

You said something about every 4 years, I guess you are talking about the btc halving? but does halving makes the mining process less difficult? I have read this last time upon doing research on something. The total energy that btc consume looks big but what about the total energy used when they create a fiat?

[DapanasFruit]

To say that we can be running out of Bitcoin is not a very accurate thing to say...what can happen is that there comes a time when there will be no new BTC that can be minted or mined as it has a specific number of coins that we can say as maximum...nothing more as it is fixed. So what can happened by that time then? In case Bitcoin remains the way it is now in terms of adoption and usage then most probably the price can go so high and a satoshi can be so valuable...by that time people will be talking on satoshi as the basic unit of Bitcoin.

[ChiBitCTy]

I’ve seen people ask about this before in the sense of will bitcoin run out because of so many millionaires and billionaires buying it up and making it next to impossible to find. I personally don’t think this will become a legitimate issue any time soon. Maybe eventually down the road, hard to say though.

[leea-1334]

No the world is not running out bitcoins. Everybody knew from the start that there is only a limited amount of Bitcoins to be mined. That is also what makes bitcoins so valuable. If we could just create new bitcoins out of thin air the price would never be as high as it is today. Being independent from governments that create the money supply is what makes cryptos so attractive to most investors. The maximum limit of Bitcoins is a great thing and we don't need to worry about it. The higher the price will be, the smaller the denominations we trade in. 1 BTC could be worth 1 million USD and we would still use it.

I do not know why normal people are so worried or think it is a big deal. I know scarcity plays an important role but that for me is macro economics. If I wanted to buy $1000 dollars of Bitcoin today, compared to 10 years ago, it would actually be easier because there is more people selling and more exchanges and more liquidity.

I understand that for institutionals it could be a problem but for most of us, it has no effect. Just whether we get 10,000 BTC for $100 or now 0.0025 BTC

[mk4]

I’ve seen people ask about this before in the sense of will bitcoin run out because of so many millionaires and billionaires buying it up and making it next to impossible to find. I personally don’t think this will become a legitimate issue any time soon. Maybe eventually down the road, hard to say though.

Any time soon? more like ever. What are the possibilities that literally not a single person is willing to sell some amount of bitcoin? Literally zero. As demand soars with little supply, the price will increase, but there will always be some bitcoin that's going to get sold. At what price, is the question.

[marilynmanson21]

I think bitcoin will continue to exist even though it cannot be mined because after mining runs out there will be a new story for bitcoin, namely buying and selling bitcoin and with more and more people looking for bitcoin there will always be transactions, and it will appear that bitcoin will never run out

[AakZaki]

need to be corrected, according to Blockchain.com bitcoin will run out in the mine forecast in February 2140 and of course it will still take a long time and we will not reach that year.
Mining is currently difficult due to some regulations regarding bitcoin mining because bitcoin mining consumes a lot of energy and is a contributor to the greenhouse effect that makes the earth warmer. But with increasingly modern technology, some bitcoin mining companies use renewable and environmentally friendly energy.
Bitcoins will become scarcer if all supplies are successfully mined and will no longer be able to be minted.

[franky1]

markets dont need all the supply(coins in circulation) in market orders. so dont worry about supply
and if bitcoin gets more popular markets wont need more coins. instead they will just sell less coins for more price

in 2012
there were 10.5mill coins in circulation
3 main exchanges.
and each market order line was between 1btc-1000btc
average trade order $6-$6000 (1btc=$6)

in 2022
there are 19mill coins in circulation (~40% more coins in circulation)
30 main exchanges.
and each market order line was between 0.001btc-1btc (1000x less coins on market orderlines)
average trade order $40-$40,000 (1btc=$40k)

what we may see in 2032
there are 20.3mill coins in circulation
300 main exchanges.
and each market order line was between 0.0001btc-0.1btc
average trade order $260-$260,000 (1btc=$2.6m)

[Fortify]

markets dont need all the supply(coins in circulation) in market orders. so dont worry about supply
and if bitcoin gets more popular markets wont need more coins. instead they will just sell less coins for more price

in 2012
there were 10.5mill coins in circulation
3 main exchanges.
and each market order line was between 1btc-1000btc
average trade order $6-$6000 (1btc=$6)

in 2022
there are 19mill coins in circulation (~40% more coins in circulation)
30 main exchanges.
and each market order line was between 0.001btc-1btc (1000x less coins on market orderlines)
average trade order $40-$40,000 (1btc=$40k)

what we may see in 2032
there are 20.3mill coins in circulation
300 main exchanges.
and each market order line was between 0.0001btc-0.1btc
average trade order $260-$260,000 (1btc=$2.6m)

Its foolish to try to forecast that far into the future as you're extrapolating based on a relatively short history. Bitcoin is seeing a lot of volatility at the moment and it could easily be supplanted by other government cryptocurrencies. Such a move could even trigger governments to start banning and competitor coins. The main problem for bitcoin right now is an image problem - in many countries the politicians are starting to pick up on how wasteful it is with energy usage and many countries are in the midst of an energy crisis with spiralling costs. At some point soon we may see action take to conserve energy usage and crypto will be a very easy target which the general population will not care about.

[franky1]

markets dont need all the supply(coins in circulation) in market orders. so dont worry about supply
and if bitcoin gets more popular markets wont need more coins. instead they will just sell less coins for more price

Its foolish to try to forecast .

im not even forecasting.. that is not the point
you mention about volatility.. (aka price movements) pfft.. not the point

the point is not about price forecasting or anything like that..
its a demonstration about the supply of units of measure
its about the fact that in ancient egypt times they measured gold in tonnes/kg's
in wild west times it was pounds/ounces
in modern times its becoming ounces/grams

its not about forecasting the price. its about explaining how markets measure in less units.

people dont need to buy whole tonnes of gold or KG anymore. (bars/ingots)
now they buy in ounces or grams (coins and dust)
same applies to bitcoin