How would this effect bitcoin? would it cause us to regress back to a time where we actually counted bitcoin in bitcoins not satoshis, or would bitcoin become insanely expensive?
If the miners stooped mining then the supply will be fixed since no new bitcoin are mined. The value of bitcoin will surely become very high because more users will demand for bitcoin. However, since the miners are responsible for the confirmation of transactions, what would be of bitcoin then? No transactions, no circulation of bitcoin, nothing. Bitcoin will be useless because no one can use it for any type of transaction. Congratulations! You just killed bitcoin! Well done.