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> What happens to existing hardware at that point? Resold for video games? Sold to people who have cheaper electricity? I think some is sold to people who have

> What happens to existing hardware at that point? Resold for video games? Sold to people who have cheaper electricity? I think some is sold to people who have cheaper electricity. Some miners shall probably also mine at a loss for a while, sitting on reserves, while smaller ones dies. Cannot resell for video games: Bitcoin is mined using dedicated ASICs since many years. And Ethereum, the second biggest after Bitcoin, is now mined using proof-of-stake (so neither GPUs nor ASICs involved). But in a few halvings (every four years, so in a "few halvings" I won't be here anymore) I don't understand how it'd work out: too little BTCs rewarded per block and I don't see tx fees paying the miners.

phire 2y ago
> I don't understand how it'd work out: too little BTCs rewarded per block The math only works out if value of bitcoin continues to increase in value, at least a constant 25% annual return, year after year (on top of inflation). If the price of bitcoin ever stabilises (or worse, drops) over the long term, then the security of bitcoin will go down, until eventually it becomes viable for someone to launch a 51% attack.
- tromp 2y ago
  Instead the security will rely on maintaining a large backlog of high fee paying transactions.
- greyface- 2y ago
  100% return over 4 years refigured as constant annual return is 19%, not 25%, due to compounding.
- woleium 2y ago
  difficulty also updates every couple of weeks. less folk mining means less energy per coin mined
  - phire 2y ago
    Yeah, the amount of energy per coin mined kind of follows the price of the coin (in the longer term, not so much in the short term). So the price going down is great news for anyone concerned about energy conservation, but because the amount of energy wasted is directly correlated to the difficulty of launching a 51% attack, the energy usage going down is bad news for anyone actually using bitcoin.
    - woleium 2y ago
      The energy is not wasted, its used to sustain the system. Similarly the energy used to power inactive pos systems is used to sustain the system for immediate use when needed.
- npoc 2y ago
  You're forgetting the transaction fees. Not only is the number of bitcoin hard capped, but also the transaction rate. As the network stores more and more value, the demand for transactions increases against a fixed supply, driving fees higher. The fees are independent of transaction amount, so what looks like high fees to someone transferring $1000 - let's say $50 fee - will be extremely cheap for someone transferring $1,000,000,000 (when you consider it includes final settlement, and loss-less storage of value for eternity). By 2140 all of the miners income will come from transaction fees, by which time the base layer will likely be transferring millions and billions of dollars worth of value in each transaction.

phire 2y ago

> I don't understand how it'd work out: too little BTCs rewarded per block The math only works out if value of bitcoin continues to increase in value, at least a constant 25% annual return, year after year (on top of inflation). If the price of bitcoin ever stabilises (or worse, drops) over the long term, then the security of bitcoin will go down, until eventually it becomes viable for someone to launch a 51% attack.

tromp 2y ago
Instead the security will rely on maintaining a large backlog of high fee paying transactions.
greyface- 2y ago
100% return over 4 years refigured as constant annual return is 19%, not 25%, due to compounding.
woleium 2y ago
difficulty also updates every couple of weeks. less folk mining means less energy per coin mined
- phire 2y ago
  Yeah, the amount of energy per coin mined kind of follows the price of the coin (in the longer term, not so much in the short term). So the price going down is great news for anyone concerned about energy conservation, but because the amount of energy wasted is directly correlated to the difficulty of launching a 51% attack, the energy usage going down is bad news for anyone actually using bitcoin.
  - woleium 2y ago
    The energy is not wasted, its used to sustain the system. Similarly the energy used to power inactive pos systems is used to sustain the system for immediate use when needed.
npoc 2y ago
You're forgetting the transaction fees. Not only is the number of bitcoin hard capped, but also the transaction rate. As the network stores more and more value, the demand for transactions increases against a fixed supply, driving fees higher. The fees are independent of transaction amount, so what looks like high fees to someone transferring $1000 - let's say $50 fee - will be extremely cheap for someone transferring $1,000,000,000 (when you consider it includes final settlement, and loss-less storage of value for eternity). By 2140 all of the miners income will come from transaction fees, by which time the base layer will likely be transferring millions and billions of dollars worth of value in each transaction.