What Happens When There Are No More Bitcoins Left to Mine in 2140?
M. Ellis asks "What do you think will happen to Bitcoin's stability when there are no coins left to mine, and all the miners have no reason to keep spending money on electricity to confirm transactions? What is the incentive to keep track of the transactions and how will Bitcoin survive?"
Actualy, miners are already earning money from transactions fees. Today, miners earn more from receiving newly created bitcoin than from transactions fees, but this will change.
As the number of Bitcoin transactions increases, the reward from transaction fees will also increase. And every time a "halvening" occurs (some call it "halving"), the rewards from newly created bitcoin decreases. For those who don't know, a halvening means that the number of newly created bitcoin with each block will be halfed. Halvenings occur every four years.
So one day the rewards from transactions fees will be bigger than rewards from new bitcoin. And this day is much closer than 2140. By 2140 transaction fees will be more than enough for miners to be happy.
Some insight, thanx
@marc99 Thanks for the #commentoftheday and the super simple explanation. Your comment is making it on the shortlist of info I am gathering on how to explain this stuff to people. Good luck in 2018!
impossible to say
The video explained something to me, where we mine bitcoins from. Though waiting for that time when there will be no bitcoin left to mine.
I would hope by 2140 renewable energy would be exponentially cheaper than it is now. It would definitely be a bit of prisoner's dilemma for people to keep it going, but everyone who holds BTC would have an interest in maintaining its value by processing the transactions. I'm not sure how much I believe Bitcoin will still be around in that long. It's certainly possible, but even global companies with deep rooted brand value do not often last that long, and crypto is an intensely competitive market right now.
keep up the good vids @louisthomas. :)
Interesting
2140 is a long way ahead, I think we should worry about getting there with our planet still in one piece :D
At that time miners would have to look for another name for the miners fee they charge to confirm transactions on the network, off they would have to upgrade the net work to be able to auto confirm transactions free of charge.
I believe in life extension and that we will see people living longer. However, in 2140 I would be 170....I think they will add a couple decades but not that many.
Hence I am not real concerned about what they are doing in 2140.
Really interesting topic to discuss but as you pointed out right now it is out of question to find sollution for it.