Have you ever wondered what will happen when all BTC gets mined? We know that there’ll only ever be 21 million units of BTC. And there are about 2 million left to be mined. Mining Bitcoin is great, but will end at some point.
So what will happen when the last Bitcoin is mined? Will the market come down crashing? Is there a solution to this “problem”?
The first Bitcoin was mined in January 2009, most likely by the founder – Satoshi Nakamoto. From then on, new BTC are issued when every block is mined.
The last BTC is said to be mined in the year 2140. However, mathematically looking at the Bitcoin halvings, which is roughly 3 years and 9 months apart, the last BTC will be mined in the year 2078.
Since it’ll become increasingly difficult to use Bitcoin as a form of micro payments, being that it can only handle 8 transactions per block, it’s fitting to see why Bitcoin will be more recognised as a store of value. The digital gold.
Although this is not what the creator, Satoshi, had in mind, its the best option. Especially when you consider the lighting power required to mine BTC, and rewards for miners reducing over time.
When we consider the amount of institutional investment in Bitcoin, its safe to conclude the the future of Bitcoin is secure. And with more governmental adoption and investments, they will do everything in the world to keep the network running.
Governments and institutions could subsidize mining fees or create their own mining networks close to when the last Bitcoin will be mined. Because miners won’t find mining BTC very profitable anymore.
At that point also, the entire BTC network could migrate to a smart contract like Ethereum. This possibility makes sense, as about 7% of all BTC available currently are wrapped in ETH. The amount of wrapped BTC keeps on going high each year. Other smart contracts like Polkadot and Cardano will also have wrapped BTCs.
We can be sure BTC will survive on after the last BTC is mined. With different innovations coming up, one of them could make it possible to create a new economic system for BTC at that time. So if Bitcoin mining stops, the network will continue.
If Bitcoin remains a store of value, there won’t be any issues at all. If Bitcoin will be used as a form of payment, then something will have to change for this to be sustained.
