4 ms·

It needs energy to be expended continuously in mining it, if it uses PoW. So it might end one day.

• cesarb 3y ago
  > So it might end one day. Only if the mining stops abruptly. Otherwise, the automatic difficulty adjustment allows it to keep working even with a reduced energy expenditure. In the extreme, a single computer running in a museum could be enough to keep the blockchain working forever.
  • ogogmad 3y ago
    A single computer in a museum would be vulnerable to 51% attacks. It would also be too illiquid to recoup costs.
    • grotorea 3y ago
      But the 51% attack would cost more than the value of the Bitcoin you could get by doing it, which is presumably ~0 since the only node is a museum computer.
• Kiro 3y ago
  The difficulty is adjusted automatically depending on how many miners there are, so it can go down.
  • ogogmad 3y ago
    That might be one of those things that works well in the short term but may also have severe tail risks. I heard a similar story about an algorithmic stablecoin called Luna (I think). The analogue of difficulty adjustments there worked fine until one day it didn't.
    • grotorea 3y ago
      They can ultimately change the code if needed. Luna also tried that IIRC.
      • kibwen 3y ago
        Indeed, one can "change the code" to do anything... including things like increasing the bitcoin supply arbitrarily. Bitcoin's scarcity is a social construct that will be changed when the people who control the nodes want to change it.
    • sebzim4500 3y ago
      Luna was a very different situation, it was nothing to do with difficulty adjustments.