True. Bitcoin as currently designed doesn't support the transaction throughput or latency anyways for folks to buy gum, only larger money transfers. (I'm a skep

True. Bitcoin as currently designed doesn't support the transaction throughput or latency anyways for folks to buy gum, only larger money transfers. (I'm a skeptic, FWIW) Without the presence of transaction fees though, things would fall apart once the block reward ran out, as asked in the original question.