Once all the bitcoins are mined in 2140, it's usual that newbies question where will be the transactions fees go at... well it will continue the same as it is now, but the miners will only get the fees, they will not get the generated coins. There is an ongoing discussion about how by 2140 there will not be enough incentive for miners to keep mining because of that... I would like to know more.
question: how do you want to give the miner a fee for mining, when all the blocks are already mined?
Mining means putting a transaction in a new block where it stays forever. The first miner who does that earns the fee and 12.5 btc at the moment.
From all I understand about the way bitcoin works, I must assume the following thing: after all blocks are mined, bitcoin is kind of dead.
Or am I wrong there?
You are wrong.
He did not say all the "blocks" we're mined, but all the Bitcoins, by which he means that all 21 million bitcoins will have been generated. Blocks will continue to be created, one every 10 minutes, in order that transactions can continue to be made and confirmed and the network will continue.
The difference is that there will be no coinbase reward of new Bitcoins, instead miners will earn only the transaction fees.
(This all assumes that Bitcoin actually lasts 'til then of course.)
Thanks for the info, I really always thought that after 21 mio bitcoins no more blocks could be mined.
Has anybody an idea of how high the fees are that are earned for mining one block in average?