>but decentralization is not free, it's extremely expensive, and once miner subsidies disappear and the true price of securing the network becomes an upfront co

>but decentralization is not free, it's extremely expensive, and once miner subsidies disappear and the true price of securing the network becomes an upfront cost to general users, nobody will even consider using bitcoin except in situations where decentralization provides tangible benefits (i.e. for incognito transactions). The cost of securing the network fluctuates to match mining revenue, which in turn is determined by the market price of bitcoin and the number of bitcoins being rewarded to miners for each block they generate. In other words, when the block subsidy decreases, the security of the network will decrease, the average transaction fee will not increase. Now, increases in total transaction fees could potentially compensate the loss of mining revenues from the subsidy declining, if transaction volumes increase, but the average fee per transaction will always trend toward the very minimal cost for a miner to process it.