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>Explain to me how Bitcoin survives in a world where miner rewards collapse or cease to exist - ie after all Bitcoin are done being unlocked through PoW. The s

>Explain to me how Bitcoin survives in a world where miner rewards collapse or cease to exist - ie after all Bitcoin are done being unlocked through PoW. The second part of the miner reward consists of transaction fees which will compensate. Most small scale transactions will be done on second layers such as lightning, thus being unaffected, while big transactions for which the extra security is worth it will be willing to pay the high transaction fees.

paulgb 4y ago
Transaction fees currently makes up 1-2% of the reward and don’t seem to be growing.
- rieTohgh6 4y ago
  In theory fees should rise whenever there is congestion but it also leads to people complaining about their low-fee transaction being stuck in limbo (mempool). As long as there is free space in block it makes sense for miners to include any non-zero free transaction, so it is a race to bottom with only occasional surges, kinda like the ones that happen in Uber.
  - danuker 4y ago
    Right now, there is a wasteful amount of security, because the rate of adoption (and price growth) could not be predicted. Almost $800k is burnt hourly. Very few people need to transfer that much, and those who do, can wait for extra confirmations. https://www.crypto51.app/ https://www.crypto51.app/ I would like to see the block reward reduced even SOONER. Halvenings every 4 years is too slow. But I don't think it's going to happen sadly. As for fees, they could be driven higher by limiting block size, should the community decide they need more security once the block reward becomes too small. Point is: the algorithm is not infallible, and would have to adapt. Otherwise Bitcoin becomes brittle.
bhaak 4y ago
Shouldn't we see some of effect by now? I think we should but what we see is that other blockchains get used more and there the fees go up: https://cryptofees.info/ https://cryptofees.info/ To me, this looks like demand is going to cheaper blockchains instead of scaling on Bitcoin L2 solutions.

paulgb 4y ago

Transaction fees currently makes up 1-2% of the reward and don’t seem to be growing.

rieTohgh6 4y ago
In theory fees should rise whenever there is congestion but it also leads to people complaining about their low-fee transaction being stuck in limbo (mempool). As long as there is free space in block it makes sense for miners to include any non-zero free transaction, so it is a race to bottom with only occasional surges, kinda like the ones that happen in Uber.
- danuker 4y ago
  Right now, there is a wasteful amount of security, because the rate of adoption (and price growth) could not be predicted. Almost $800k is burnt hourly. Very few people need to transfer that much, and those who do, can wait for extra confirmations. https://www.crypto51.app/ https://www.crypto51.app/ I would like to see the block reward reduced even SOONER. Halvenings every 4 years is too slow. But I don't think it's going to happen sadly. As for fees, they could be driven higher by limiting block size, should the community decide they need more security once the block reward becomes too small. Point is: the algorithm is not infallible, and would have to adapt. Otherwise Bitcoin becomes brittle.

bhaak 4y ago

Shouldn't we see some of effect by now? I think we should but what we see is that other blockchains get used more and there the fees go up: https://cryptofees.info/ https://cryptofees.info/ To me, this looks like demand is going to cheaper blockchains instead of scaling on Bitcoin L2 solutions.