Mining - what happens at the end?

[Pachuca]

I think I understand the general idea of how cryptocurrencies work. Bitcoin for example has a limited quantity of 21 million that will ever exist. My question is... what happens when the last Bitcoin gets mined?

[DrMacintosh]

Then nobody else can have bitcoin. 

 

You could only deal with how many were out there. 

 

Unless they make more, then the currency just becomes more of a joke than real money. 

[rn8686]

Then people will get payed out of transaction fees, already happens now with the reduced payouts. 

6 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Then nobody else can have bitcoin. 

 

You could only deal with how many were out there. 

 

Unless they make more, then the currency just becomes more of a joke than real money. 

Not at all, its to prevent inflation. It should only drive up the price as BTC will slowly go out of circulation. 

[yathis]

Then the price of Bitcoin increases as new supply is over with.

Limited supply = higher price

Could also be worthless

Its a gamble.

[Pachuca]

i thought miners are verifying the authenticity of Bitcoin. When there is nothing left to mine does that mean it's all valid currency at that point?

[rn8686]

16 minutes ago, Pachuca said:

i thought miners are verifying the authenticity of Bitcoin. When there is nothing left to mine does that mean it's all valid currency at that point?

No, they verify transactions. Miners will always be necessary, they will just get payed out of transaction fees instead (Assuming a new system isnt devised). 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, GamingMemeKing said:

Don't forget the currency can be split into multiple decimal places as well.

The first time I heard that I thought that was the dumbest thing ever. Why don't I just owe you half a penny? 

[Samfisher]

16 hours ago, fpo said:

The first time I heard that I thought that was the dumbest thing ever. Why don't I just owe you half a penny? 

Cos 1 btc isn't 1 cent.  When 1 BTC is a four digit worth, are you saying that everything should have a minimum price of $2700 cos you don't want to deal with decimals?  People sometimes...

[Guest]

13 hours ago, Samfisher said:

Cos 1 btc isn't 1 cent.  When 1 BTC is a four digit worth, are you saying that everything should have a minimum price of $2700 cos you don't want to deal with decimals?  People sometimes...

What about .01 Euros? As of now it's .73 rupees. 

Theoretically if something cost .5 rupees, and you paid in Euros, you would still be overpaying by 23 rupees. 

[Samfisher]

1 hour ago, fpo said:

What about .01 Euros? As of now it's .73 rupees. 

Theoretically if something cost .5 rupees, and you paid in Euros, you would still be overpaying by 23 rupees. 

Yea but you're paying in two different currencies.  BTC is a currency too, and you pay with BTC, not a converted value of BTC.