Will there be a miner crisis if 21 million bitcoins are mined?

[Loyang]

I was just browsing the forum and at that time a topic of one of our senior board members came to my attention and from there a thought came to my mind and I did a little research on it and found some information on the subject.

Since a maximum of 21 million Bitcoins can be mined. So if Bitcoin mining is completely finished, will we have difficulty in making transactions or will we have to suffer. The reason I think this is that miners are needed to complete Bitcoin transactions.

By verifying transactions, nodes
Miners add them to the block

Currently, miners earn income in two ways, one is fees and the other is mining new Bitcoins. When Bitcoin cannot be mined, maybe many people may stop mining and maybe we may suffer for this, I thought. That's unlikely to happen, because Bitcoin is designed to be able to accept money in all situations. The Lightning Network is currently being used for transactions, and a larger alternative may emerge in the future. At that time, we may have to pay higher fees, but that may not be the case.

[Frankolala]

Miners will continue with their job because they're the ones keeping the network ongoing. If the 21 million bitcoin is mined, miners will get their mining fee from transaction fee and who knows if by then bitcoin transaction fee will be high. However, some miners will pack up their bags if it's not favorable to them. Worry less about this because we will not be in existence to witness it. The last bitcoin will be mined in 2140.

[Dulen007]

I want to add one angle wey I think people dey overlook for this discussion.
We dey talk about 21 million Bitcoin like all of them go still be available when mining finish but that no be the reality. Millions of Bitcoin don already lost forever. People wey lose their private keys, abandoned wallets wey nobody go ever access again, even Satoshi himself get coins wey never move till today. Some estimates put lost Bitcoin at around 4 million already, and that number go only increase with time.
So by the time the last Bitcoin don mined around 2140, the actual circulating supply go be far less than 21 million. The scarcity go be more extreme than even the 21 million cap suggest.
And here is how this connects to the original concern. If Bitcoin dey scarcer, e go dey more valuable. If e dey more valuable, miners go have strong incentive to keep securing the network even on transaction fees alone.
So the fear of miners leaving when mining finish go be less of a problem than we think.

[promise444c5]

By then, we could have bigger pools as Solo mining might not be really profitable, so there’s  high possibility a lot of solo miners and even miners that can’t keep up could eventually quit.
Lightning Network doesn’t fit in the argument but fees still fits.

You shouldn’t be worry that much about it now, most of us here won’t even be alive by then and it’s a lot of years where anything can be introduced by the newer generation.

I’m sure they will figure out something..

I also had a thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5467367.msg62871782#msg62871782

[PostQuantumBTC]

All I know is that bitcoin will continue to exist and in a way miners will continue to make profit. If miners are not making profit, some miners will stop mining which will make the mining difficulty to reduce and other miners that remain will make money.

By then, we could have bigger pools as Solo mining might not be really profitable, so there’s high possibility a lot of solo miners and even miners that can’t keep up could eventually quit.

With what is happening now, I do not think solo miners will quite. Many of them join hands together to contribute an hash rate that they think they can still be able to mine a block but not frequently. Not all of them are truly just a single miner and they did not join a mining pool but seen as unknown miners.

[casey15]

One thing to note is that bitcoin mining will not just abruptly come to a stop. It will gradually reduce as block reward decrease over time due to halving cycle. By the time the last bitcoin will be mined, hopefully the network will have been matured enough to sustain miners with transaction fees alone.
Transaction fees have already become a meaningful part of miners revenue especially during periods of high network activity. As block reward continues to reduce and gradually approach zero,
 transaction fee is expected to become the primary source of profit for miners.. by the time the last bitcoin is mined, adoption will definitely have grown and sufficient that the volume of transactions can keep miners profitable

[Fivestar4everMVP]

Currently, miners earn income in two ways, one is fees and the other is mining new Bitcoins. When Bitcoin cannot be mined, maybe many people may stop mining and maybe we may suffer for this, I thought. That's unlikely to happen, because Bitcoin is designed to be able to accept money in all situations. The Lightning Network is currently being used for transactions, and a larger alternative may emerge in the future. At that time, we may have to pay higher fees, but that may not be the case.

You said my mind in the last part of your post which is that we may likely have to pay higher fees when the total of 21 million bitcoins have been successfully mined and bitcoin mining completely closed.
At this time,  the only means through which miners will be making money is through confirming bitcoin transactions on the bitcoin network, if fees does not increase, lots of miners then may find confirming bitcoin transactions unprofitable and may shutdown their system, so to keep the miners online to continue to support and protect the bitcoin network, they have to be earning enough from transaction fees..

And the unfortunate thing is that 99.9 percent of us who are here today maynot be alive to witness what will happen to bitcoin when the entire 21 million bitcoin gets mined, thir is a harsh reality but death is a call every body must answer one day.

[DiMarxist]

When eventually we will see the remaining Bitcoin which are left for mining, because currently speaking some of the Bitcoin is lost from been mined. What will be profound and beneficial to miners will be transactions fess. But one thing that will happen when mining eventually comes to an end will be an increase in the value of Bitcoin because when ever there is scarcity of a product the value of such a product will appreciate in value which will make the price to go up.

[promise444c5]

With what is happening now, I do not think solo miners will quite. Many of them join hands together to contribute an hash rate that they think they can still be able to mine a block but not frequently. Not all of them are truly just a single miner and they did not join a mining pool but seen as unknown miners.

Well technically,  if they should merge then it’s not more like a solo mining even though they are doing it solo , so far they will share the profits among themselves.

Thus, this depends on how pools are capable of dragging the difficulty which could eventually make it non profitable for the solos to compete. There could be a total different outcome in fututre though, it’s all speculation but I do think things will be somewhat tight for the solo miners