Quote from: matrix zion on July 09, 2016, 05:51:32 PM

Quote from: Syke on July 09, 2016, 05:27:33 PM

Quote from: jackg on July 09, 2016, 04:12:47 PM

So the confirmation speed may decrease if people do turn miners off and others do not tun miners on to make it more profitable?

No, the difficulty adjusts every 2016 blocks so that confirmations will always average about 10 minutes.

Which could create an incredible jam in transaction confirmations if lots of people suddenly turn off miners

That is true, however the three main mining companies: BW, bitmain/hashnest and bitfury will not immediately turn of their miners.
Hashnest, who are at 30PH/s have to give their customers at least a few hours of warning time before they can turn off their devices.
As these companies cumulatively make up over 60% of the miners in use, then your suggestion will not happen immediately as these companies may lose more money as a result of the halving!