What happens when the bitcoin mines are empty?
Since bitcoin first came into existence about 8 years ago, or maybe earlier, a lot of bitcoin have now been mined. Of the maximum possible 21 million bitcoins approximately +17 million bitcoins have been mined and the remaining bitcoin will take about 8 years to mine at current rate.
As bitcoin prices increases and numbers decreases bitcoin gets more difficult to mine. However as computer hardwares and softwares evolve and become more powerful and complex does this affect the difficulty of bitcoin mining making it more efficient and less difficult? After all the code for bitcoin was written over 8 years ago based on hardware and coded using languages of the time. Eight years is a very long time in technology.
The above information is based on my own research on the internet and for discussion purpose, please enlighten me if I am wrong on any of the “facts” above.
So, will the bitcoin mines ever be emptied?
The price will jump if/when that news is announced?
8 years is a long time and anything can happen between now and then. Bitcoin has been with us for 8 years but when will the next killer coin come along. Technology comes and go.
When the mines start to empty the demand may start to wane as there is no longer an incentive to seek out the elusive coin. Even though it is a crypto-coin, it is still subject to market forces such as supply and demand. Maybe the trend is to the moon or maybe we are just in a boom cycle until the day when bitcoin is no longer the crypto of choice.
Bitcoin may become so valuable that no-one want to spend bitcoin or that bitcoin is out of reach for people like us. If that is the case then Alt-coin will come into play. Maybe Steem will be its little brother. Who knows!
Many questions to think about and how to position myself for the future but at the moment it is in bitcoin and steem, maybe some in Ethereum and Ripple in the next few days.
hey marcus, yes, we will run out of bitcoin block rewards. The reward per block is preprogrammed to half every few years (halvening). eventually block rewards will reduce to zero and miners will mine for transaction fees only.
@boxmining, thanks, not sure what you mean with regards to mining for transaction fees. If there is zero to mine then why would anyone mine?
mining rewards have 2 components:
Eventually network reward will be zero, but transaction fees will still remain.
Thanks @boxmining, still a little confused as to why users will pay fees to mine something that is empty, would that then not turn it into a ponzi type scheme?. Will do some research to find out more.
I see, they will then have to change their business model to become another crypto-wallet like Exodus, Multi-bit etc....
why they are the bitbank and offering legal tender as it is :D it's the normal way into and out of crypto. It's really like the crypto bank.
woop I'm following you nice videos and thanks for the BAT announcement :D even if it was a "tough time" to buy it :D ha so that's why transaction fees are high and it's a good thing :D
the last bitcoin wont be mined till after 2100
And as bitcoin keeps getting more expensive it will remain profitable to mine bitcoin for many manyyears
and they can always use their bitcoin miiners to mine ethereum! DOnt believe anyone who tells you bitcoin miners even ASICs are only good for mining bitcoin, thats liek saying a computer can only run one program.
they be mining steem with the old bitcoin miners :)