What happens to Bitcoin miners after rewards end in 2140?

[Jammy01]

We all know that Bitcoin mining rewards get cut in half every 4 years. By around 2140, there will be no more block rewards, only transaction fees.

The question is: will transaction fees alone be enough to keep miners motivated and the network secure? Or would Bitcoin need to change before then?

[Hypothek]

I've read somewhere that Blockstream is going to receive the fee and do the transactions.
Even today farming is not profitable.

[JiiBs]

I've read somewhere that Blockstream is going to receive the fee and do the transactions.
Even today farming is not profitable.

Miners receive less for block reward in today than they did over the last Bitcoin circle being 4years ago and the year before that but, the twist is that, the amount they receive in today is much more valued than the last circle and the one before that. I don’t mean those who were able to hold doesn’t have more value but, value it at the time of reward you would find more value in the present than past.

Fees might not look like much now but, given the value Bitcoin has always been known to amass, it would mean fees would be the new mine for miners to get real value for their work.

[kotajikikox]

The question is: will transaction fees alone be enough to keep miners motivated and the network secure? Or would Bitcoin need to change before then?

The short answer is that if the adoption remains high and the transactions keep going, which I believe will in the future, then fees would be enough to keep the network secure. The network doesn't necessarily have to change but if along the road, there are developments that may be better for all like the miners and the users then it may be welcomed but it is not necessary to keep bitcoin secure.

[Richbased]

When 210,000 blocks are added to the blockchain, miners rewards are cut in two and it happens at every halving event which is 4 years cycle so this means that when the limited supply of 21 million bitcoins are mined by 2140, miners will only depend on transaction fees which means that they won't be earning much bitcoins as it was during halving events so i think that most of them will not be motivated to only continue with the rewards from transaction fees so definitely a lot of them miners will quit and by then they must have also acquired a lot of bitcoins from the ones they mined in the past so it won't affect them that much because even as their rewards are halved after every 4 years it didn't really stop them from continues mining and besides, as miners are leaving that is also how other miners are developing interest.

 

[Dunamisx]

The question is: will transaction fees alone be enough to keep miners motivated and the network secure? Or would Bitcoin need to change before then?

Nothing will change till then and after, the bitcoin network works by protocols and these cannot be altered, they had to be on consensus, while as for the miners, the transaction fee is still far better than earning nothing, because there will always be transactions and just take a look at the numbers of transactions being made each day to that of the numbers of miners we have, what about that and how cool do you see that for the miners in the future.

[Hypothek]

The question is: will transaction fees alone be enough to keep miners motivated and the network secure? Or would Bitcoin need to change before then?

Nothing will change till then and after, the bitcoin network works by protocols and these cannot be altered, they had to be on consensus, while as for the miners, the transaction fee is still far better than earning nothing, because there will always be transactions and just take a look at the numbers of transactions being made each day to that of the numbers of miners we have, what about that and how cool do you see that for the miners in the future.

Is there a possibility that technological advancements could lag behind the rising difficulty of hashing, prompting the community to reconsider further increases?

Technology Plateau Warning:Despite these gains, experts note that ASICs are approaching physical limits—meaning future leaps may be smaller unless breakthroughs in cooling, layout, or chip design emerge.
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[gmaxwell]

"the community" doesn't control difficulty--- the system just adjusts itself to keep blocks at ~10 minutes per block on average.

The idea that difficulty constantly goes up is just a common misunderstanding because it has mostly gone up due to increased horsepower being put into mining due to increased demand for the bitcoin received from mining.  But it can and sometimes does go down-- it does whatever is needed to keep blocks at the programmed rate.

The question is: will transaction fees alone be enough to keep miners motivated and the network secure?

Bitcoin's current transaction fees are several times the amount returned by subsidy and fees from several of the 'large block' competitors combined (which tend to get almost nothing in fees due to the lack of limited space preventing the existence of a market for space).  So if you agree those systems are functional, then you should conclude bitcoin could survive right now without subsidy.

[UchihaSarada]

We all know that Bitcoin mining rewards get cut in half every 4 years. By around 2140, there will be no more block rewards, only transaction fees.

The question is: will transaction fees alone be enough to keep miners motivated and the network secure? Or would Bitcoin need to change before then?

It's about the future so nothing to be sure about future but if Bitcoin miners keep doing like they have mined Bitcoin blocks since 2009 and through many Bitcoin halvings, they will not stop mining after 2140.

It's because with Bitcoin adoption growth, value increases, and demand rises more, Bitcoin will have more higher price with time so Bitcoin miners will receive more money from Bitcoin transaction fees in each Bitcoin block. It will be enough for Bitcoin miners paying their mining cost and also have profit from mining, then they will have no reason to stop mining.

How is the 21 million Bitcoin cap defined and enforced?
What will happen to Bitcoin after all 21 millions are mined?

[arzuo]

That time ( in the future after 2140) bitcoin price will be too much high so only transition fee is huge for them ( miners) So they no need to get reward after 2140 bitcoin designed with that system to grow up always after per halving and end of the halving BTC.

[Alpen]

We all know that Bitcoin mining rewards get cut in half every 4 years. By around 2140, there will be no more block rewards, only transaction fees.

The question is: will transaction fees alone be enough to keep miners motivated and the network secure? Or would Bitcoin need to change before then?

Bitcoin's already changed a lot since the Taproot update. Now, the focus needs to be on attracting developers to the blockchain so they can start running primitive smart contracts, tokens, or even NFTs. I think we'll see those really take off once stablecoins and the RWA (Real World Assets) narrative get legalized at a government level.

[adaseb]

The goal was to get bitcoin up and running so when the block rewards are negligable the network will support the miners with the transaction fees because its a successful protocol with lots of transactions always happening.

At the beginning nobody would mine bitcoin because most blocks werent empty, I remember for years the default block fee for a transaction was always 10K sats. And it was like that for years, it wasnt until 2017 when you actually had to increase the default miner fee to get a chance of getting your transaction mined by the next block. Alot has changed since then.

[BitGoba]

We all know that Bitcoin mining rewards get cut in half every 4 years. By around 2140, there will be no more block rewards, only transaction fees.

The question is: will transaction fees alone be enough to keep miners motivated and the network secure? Or would Bitcoin need to change before then?

Nothing special will happen  Bitcoin will continue to function as usual. By the year 2140, most of the world will likely be “hyperbitcoinized,” meaning Bitcoin will have become the main store of value and medium of exchang Transaction fees are already high enough today for the Bitcoin network to function securely, even if the block reward were to disappear completely.

Dont fall for the stories spread by crypto scammers and founders of various crypto projects, who just want to sell you their “shitcoins” while they accumulate Bitcoin themselves.

[Dunamisx]

Is there a possibility that technological advancements could lag behind the rising difficulty of hashing, prompting the community to reconsider further increases?

It's mostly impossible to increase the 21 million total supply of bitcoin, because the network has been programmed for this, the network works by its protocols and there's no way this can be altered except there's a change in the protocols which is likely impossible because of trust.

[Hazink]

Is there a possibility that technological advancements could lag behind the rising difficulty of hashing, prompting the community to reconsider further increases?

It's mostly impossible to increase the 21 million total supply of bitcoin, because the network has been programmed for this, the network works by its protocols and there's no way this can be altered except there's a change in the protocols which is likely impossible because of trust.

We already know that bitcoin has a fixed supply which is not going to exceed that number. That supply is not what the Op is talking about but rather his/her concern is about what will happen after everything is mined, asking if there's no possibility of increasing what it takes for a block to be mined, to increase the average time when all bitcoin is going to be completely mined

[Yaunfitda]

We all know that Bitcoin mining rewards get cut in half every 4 years. By around 2140, there will be no more block rewards, only transaction fees.

The question is: will transaction fees alone be enough to keep miners motivated and the network secure? Or would Bitcoin need to change before then?

You don't need to wait for that long, maybe in the next couple of halvings, when almost all Bitcoin has been mined or at least 99% of it. Right now we are in 19.93, so if we reaches 20 million, that 1 million in circulation will take centuries. So again, just wait for 20 million and maybe that time we will have a clue on what is going to happen. And there are a lot of threads already about this;

• what will happen after 21 million bitcoins are mined? (in layman's terms)
• How will Bitcoin survive after all 21M coins have been mined?
• What will happen if all 21 Million BTC are mined?
• what will be the date of last bitcoin mined?

[Hedis]

We all know that Bitcoin mining rewards get cut in half every 4 years. By around 2140, there will be no more block rewards, only transaction fees.

The question is: will transaction fees alone be enough to keep miners motivated and the network secure? Or would Bitcoin need to change before then?

I think it will depend entirely on how much Bitcoin is used in the future. If Bitcoin becomes more expensive and the volume of transactions increases, then there could be a good income from fees. Moreover technology will also advance a lot as a result of which the cost of mining could decrease. So I think Bitcoin will not need any major changes but the system will survive naturally.

[Antotena]

We all know that Bitcoin mining rewards get cut in half every 4 years. By around 2140, there will be no more block rewards, only transaction fees.

The question is: will transaction fees alone be enough to keep miners motivated and the network secure? Or would Bitcoin need to change before then?

There is an expected announcement about upcoming upgrade of Bitcoin core version 30, it's going to allow people to send an arbitrary data into Bitcoin op_return script and with this, miners are going to be making money from the bytes included in this transactions, I think with such technology it is going to be a way for miners to make incentives instead of depending on block rewards that deplete with time, there is going to come a time when block reward will be less than cost of production even with pool mining.

It's also possible that fees will be another ways for them to keep the network going but a mix of this on the Bitcoin network is going to bring revenue and fees for miners to make money rather than depending on something that is going to get slash with time. If Bitcoin price becomes stagnant for a wile, it's going to be a challenge because nobody can tell where Bitcoin price will be in the future and the transaction fees are not that big despite the fact that onchain activity is not bad.

[fikrett]

I think it will depend entirely on how much Bitcoin is used in the future. If Bitcoin becomes more expensive and the volume of transactions increases, then there could be a good income from fees. Moreover technology will also advance a lot as a result of which the cost of mining could decrease. So I think Bitcoin will not need any major changes but the system will survive naturally.

I agree.

Even now, we see different actors pushing for more usage of BTC itself through LN, and this trend is not going to stop (probably). So what you describe would probably be true.

[PepeLapiu]

At the beginning the block reward was 50 BTC. But at the time it wasn't enough to buy you a kick in the ass or a bag of chips. It wasn't even worth a 25¢ coin.

Every 4 years, the reward gets cit in half, but the price goes way higher than 2x. So much so that today's 3 BTC reward gets you over $350,000 USD. That's a pretty big bag of chips. And that tread will continue for some time.

In 2040, I'll be dead, I won't care. But given that I can't even forecast what I'll eat tomorrow, I think in 2140 power will be free for everyone so you can plug on your teleporter and your hover car for free. Not sure if miner fees can sustain bitcoin in that environment. Don't worry. You got a giant bag of chips now. Touch some grass, go for a hover car ride.