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[Devin Chow]

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[Forbet]

The last coin is mined just like the first. After that rewards come from transaction fees.

[R2D221]

You can't have the last full Bitcoin. The exact number of Bitcoins to be produced is 20999999.97690000

[lucky88888]

once bitcoins are all mined. it is turned into PoS! Ironic isn't it?

[shorena]

once bitcoins are all mined. it is turned into PoS! Ironic isn't it?

No its not. Miners will still create blocks, it will still require work to create them, thus its still PoW.

once bitcoins are all mined. it is turned into PoS! Ironic isn't it?

Actually, yes...it is.

In regards to my initial question:

How can the last coin be mined if there is no reward? Hence, there must be a reward in order for it to be mined.

Rewards half over time, thus the total amount possible is 20999999.97690000 without a fork as was allready posted.

If difficulty levels are theoretically at their historically highest levels in 2040...the cost in resources would be so high that the reward would need to be worthwhile for someone to justify mining it. Thus, the purchasing power of each Bitcoin would theoretically have to be such that despite the resources required to mine, it would still be profitable to do so.

Is there a possibility that LESS than 21 million coins will ever be mined? Probable?

No, that would require miners to stop mining, thus transaktions to stop getting confirmed, thus bitcoin to die. Or a fork, but everything is possible with a fork. If there are no more rewards, the fees take over. There are plans to increase the blocksize [1] over time to allow more TX per block, thus higher "income" from fees.

[1] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=813324.0

[jbreher]

once bitcoins are all mined. it is turned into PoS! Ironic isn't it?

Actually, yes...it is.

Actually, no ... it's not. The network is then sustained on transaction fees.

In regards to my initial question:

How can the last coin be mined if there is no reward? Hence, there must be a reward in order for it to be mined.

It is its own reward. Kind of basic. Of course, it won't be an entire coin.

If difficulty levels are theoretically at their historically highest levels in 2040...the cost in resources would be so high that the reward would need to be worthwhile for someone to justify mining it. Thus, the purchasing power of each Bitcoin would theoretically have to be such that despite the resources required to mine, it would still be profitable to do so.

Well, you've got that right - between the last fraction of a coin reward, and the transaction fees, it should cover the energy costs. I think the mining community will have figured out a just-marginal profit margin by then.

Is there a possibility that LESS than 21 million coins will ever be mined? Probable?

No. Well, not in the sense that all the bitcoins (slightly less than 21 Mill) will be mined. If nobody else is going to mine them, my descendants will.

[trader001]

Is it even possible?

It's all kind of self-perpetuating...how can the last coin even be mined?

Price of bitcoin will either need to go to astronomical level or hash rate has to go down by many folds factor down the road for mining to continue.

And yes, the last block will be mined even if bitcoin price go down to less than 1 dollar.

[H.W.Z]

once bitcoins are all mined. it is turned into PoS! Ironic isn't it?

No its not. Miners will still create blocks, it will still require work to create them, thus its still PoW.

once bitcoins are all mined. it is turned into PoS! Ironic isn't it?

Actually, yes...it is.

In regards to my initial question:

How can the last coin be mined if there is no reward? Hence, there must be a reward in order for it to be mined.

Rewards half over time, thus the total amount possible is 20999999.97690000 without a fork as was allready posted.

If difficulty levels are theoretically at their historically highest levels in 2040...the cost in resources would be so high that the reward would need to be worthwhile for someone to justify mining it. Thus, the purchasing power of each Bitcoin would theoretically have to be such that despite the resources required to mine, it would still be profitable to do so.

Is there a possibility that LESS than 21 million coins will ever be mined? Probable?

No, that would require miners to stop mining, thus transaktions to stop getting confirmed, thus bitcoin to die. Or a fork, but everything is possible with a fork. If there are no more rewards, the fees take over. There are plans to increase the blocksize [1] over time to allow more TX per block, thus higher "income" from fees.

[1] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=813324.0

Agree.  The blocksize will be increased to solve the problem of the huge amount of TX. At that time, the Bitcoin goes to mainstream, and much more transaction fees are going to the miners to be incentivized to continue mining and secure the blockchain after the the last block is mined. 

[franky1]

the blockchain has a half life every 4 years there is not "switching" of protocols. but miners will make more of a demand that people add fee's (it will become complsary

in 140 years once it gets to 20999999.97690000 (thats when there is only a 1sat reward per block for that last 4 year period) it will stop producing a block reward. then miners will rely on fee's only as their subsidy.

using gavins idea of 50% increasing the block datasize limit per year. right now the block is capable of 2k-4k tx's, in 20 years 100k-200k tx's and in 100 years... well the sky is the limit.

i dont think worrying about what is happening in 140 years time is worth anyones brain power. we just need to concentrate on the next 5-25 years and let our kids figure out the following 25 years

[chenka563]

very possible.
When the last coins is  exploited, tha price will ……， I  really can't imagine

[teukon]

using gavins idea of 50% increasing the block datasize limit per year. right now the block is capable of 2k-4k tx's, in 20 years 100k-200k tx's and in 100 years... well the sky is the limit.

If a block now is capable of 2k-4k tx's and the blocks grow in size by 50% per year then, in 20 years, a block will accommodate:

Code:

(2k-4k tx's) *  1.5 ^ 20 ~= 7M-13M tx's

100 years would yield roughly 800P-1600P tx's (about 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 tx's).

[Fioraver]

You can't have the last full Bitcoin. The exact number of Bitcoins to be produced is 20999999.97690000

My idea is so.

[franky1]

using gavins idea of 50% increasing the block datasize limit per year. right now the block is capable of 2k-4k tx's, in 20 years 100k-200k tx's and in 100 years... well the sky is the limit.

If a block now is capable of 2k-4k tx's and the blocks grow in size by 50% per year then, in 20 years, a block will accommodate:

Code:

(2k-4k tx's) *  1.5 ^ 20 ~= 7M-13M tx's

100 years would yield roughly 800P-1600P tx's (about 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 tx's).

oops 10 years= 100-200k, (over 50mb a block in 10 years)

[Turnkey]

Last bitcoin is estimated to be mined in 2140, I think my grandchildren might be able to see that last coin.

[evok3d]

By the time it gets to the place where the last coin can be mined you wont need to worry about it if you know what i mean

I cant even imagine what the price of bitcoin will be by then!

[sandykho47]

Of course not, because the real target is only 20999999.9769 BTC
Or they add more block so it's possible exact 21000000 BTC

But, who would mine with tiny reward & extreme diff.9
And i hope bitcoin not become PoS / something else   because miner only rely on tx fee
Expect, bitcoin price in future is high / all pool miner increase tx fee

[franky1]

Of course not, because the real target is only 20999999.9769 BTC
Or they add more block so it's possible exact 21000000 BTC

But, who would mine with tiny reward & extreme diff.9
And i hope bitcoin not become PoS / something else   because miner only rely on tx fee
Expect, bitcoin price in future is high / all pool miner increase tx fee

dont worry it wont b POS.

POS is to distribute coin to whoever already has coin and has no relation on speed/security of making blocks.
EG mark karpeles can grab 5% of any fee subsidy just with 1 raspberry pi connected to his hidden stash.

mining will continue with current POW. but when there are 2.5 billion transactions per 10 minutes just a 1 satoshi fee would still be 25bitcoin subsidy.

although miners are getting greedy now, pushing people to add fee's when 25btc is adequate. (if they were not stupid to sell at a loss, and hoard instead) we would see a small demand that in 2 years time when the reward halves the price of bitcoin will jump, to compensate the halving. and we might see a 1% increase of fe demand as a bonus. so as long as miners dont start demanding 12.5bitcoin in fee's in 2 years, but a 0.125btc total per block (0.00005 per tx average) which as more tx's are allowed per block, this decreases the fee per tx rate, but increases the total tx per block due to transaction volume increases, we should be fine.

all depends on miners greed

[teukon]

using gavins idea of 50% increasing the block datasize limit per year. right now the block is capable of 2k-4k tx's, in 20 years 100k-200k tx's and in 100 years... well the sky is the limit.

If a block now is capable of 2k-4k tx's and the blocks grow in size by 50% per year then, in 20 years, a block will accommodate:

Code:

(2k-4k tx's) *  1.5 ^ 20 ~= 7M-13M tx's

100 years would yield roughly 800P-1600P tx's (about 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 tx's).

oops 10 years= 100-200k, (over 50mb a block in 10 years)

Ah, I see.  No problem.

By the way, Gavin did mention the idea of having the growth end in 20 years here in A Scalability Roadmap.  The question of a desirable ultimate transaction limit was raised here too.

[fryarminer]

I wonder what size mining countries (as opposed to the mining farms we see today) and what expense will be seen - all to mine those last 4 years of satoshis!

"YES I MINED A SATOSHI!!!"

[lightfoot]

Also remember difficulty can go down as well as up. We had a difficulty change of 1% a few days ago, apparently miners left the network at the same rate as new ones came in. The last satoshi of the last bitcoin will be mined approximately 10 minutes after the next to the last one.

That's how difficulty works. As long as there are 2 people mining with 386sx computers, a block will drop every 10 minutes.

C