I got to thinking that not many people (myself included) actually realize how close we are to block reward halving.
The poll is when do you think people will wake up and realize bitcoins aren't going to be any easier to mine nor buy for that matter (at low prices)?
I don't get it. When the block reward halves, doesn't the difficulty decrease as well? So it will be just as easy to get bitcoins?
If it is more difficult...do you think it will be more easy?
Think about it...
Doesn't the difficulty reflect the amount of computing power in use at the time?
So if the block reward is halved, mining is no longer profitable, so less people mine and computing power goes down until difficulty reaches about half of what it was, where people will then start mining again because it's profitable?
Perhaps this is not 50% of what it is now but I'd assume it's a significant decrease.
Not necessary. At the current price level, the miners can continue mining with a comfortable profit margin. That is without considering the prospect of bitcoin becoming a widely used mechanism for financial transactions. Since, the difficulty did not substantially decrease even when the prices was hovering around $2.00, it is very unlikely we will see any substantial decrease after the reward is halved. Whether it will go substantially up or not, that is still uncertain. My feeling is, with the availability of ASICs, difficulty will go up in the future.
You think that halving the reward will not impact the amount of people mining?
Block reward halving could also increase the exchange rate price especially since ASICS will be hitting the mining market around the same time before and after. Kind of like the perfect bull-ish storm for bitcoin.
Just my opinion though...