28

It is written that the supply of Bitcoin units is limited to 21 million and that this limit will approximately have been reached around the year 2030.

But is there an actual "last Bitcoin" (or "last Satoshi" for that matter) that will have been mined one day? Or will mining continue forever after producing smaller and smaller fractions?

Improve this question

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
15

Theoretically yes, but that moment is so far in the future it is likely that some other events such as new currency technology will surpass bitcoins.

However, mining will not stop. Mining is the security backbone of bitcoin, and it will continue because it will still be profitable to mine. Miners will be paid fees from existing bitcoins with every transaction instead of a reward of newly created bitcoins.

Improve this answer
5
  • 3
    once transaction fees become usual and the major part of a miner's reward, the process should really be renamed into "auditing" or the like.
    – herzmeister
    Aug 31, 2011 at 18:44
  • 1
    I find it hard to concieve that mining will be profitable far in the future. To have a significantly large enough of user base and the value to be high enough to make mining worthwhile. By 2030 I guess the number of people using bitcoins would have to be around 50 x what it is now and value would have to be over 4 x what it is now, (estimated from current rates and difficulty, this math may be way off lol). lets hope this is the case.
    – MaxSan
    Sep 2, 2011 at 9:43
  • @MaxSan Hashing can be profitable at any user & transaction volume level. At CURRENT difficulty/price/fee% you would need transaction volume to be 200x current level for mining to be profitable. If fees relative to transactions rose to say 0.5% it would only need to be about 20x current level. Of course difficulty can fall or price rise. There are infinite combinations of those three cariables which allow profitability. Example: price/difficulty rises 5x fold, transaction volume rises 10x with fees 0.5 of transactions would results in total fees roughly equal to current block reward.
    – DeathAndTaxes
    Oct 14, 2011 at 13:04
  • 1
    Market-based transaction fees don't scale. I read that even Gavin has expressed his doubt that they will.
    – Shelby Moore III
    Mar 28, 2013 at 1:41
  • How can such a FUD have 9 upvotes, wtf?
    – o0'.
    Jun 5, 2013 at 11:41
2

By 2140, the final bitcoins will be made. After 2140, no more bitcoins will be made, which means it's only trading and buying things wiith bitcoins.

Improve this answer
1
  • True, but you should really mention transaction fees.
    – o0'.
    Jun 5, 2013 at 11:41
0

No, from here (or the blocks at the top of this up-to-date list):

  • Block 501726 had no transaction outputs (except a 0-value commitment), losing the entire 12.5 BTC subsidy.

  • Block 526591 didn't claim half of the block reward, losing 6.25 BTC.

21 million - 18.75 = 20,999,981.25 BTC will have been mined

EDIT: As Raghav Sood descriped, 100 BTC was left unclaimable due to same coinbase hashes. (but pedantically, even though their outputs can't be claimed, they were mined)

Improve this answer
1
  • This is a partial list, there are some other similar losses as well - for instance, blocks 106662 and 106692, and blocks 106572 and 106730 created identical coinbase outputs, effectively destroying two blocks worth of rewards.
    – Raghav Sood
    Apr 18, 2020 at 12:13

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.