Quote from: joeyjojoshb on May 26, 2017, 12:26:41 AM

with all the miners out there they cant be doing more blocks?

No. Bitcoin is designed so that blocks are created on average every 10 minutes.

The protocol adjusts the difficulty every 2016 blocks.

If those 2016 blocks took less than 20160 minutes, then they are happening too fast and the difficulty is increased to slow down the block frequency.

If those 2016 blocks took more than 20160 minutes, then they are happening too slow and the difficulty is decreased to speed up the block frequency.

Quote from: joeyjojoshb on May 26, 2017, 12:26:41 AM

So that tells me theres massive growth yet for the bitcoin network if transaction fees are not gobbled up instantly no matter the amount.

Not without a change to how the software works. Bitcoin is currently designed to limit block size to 1 megabyte and to limit block speed to an average of 1 block every 10 minutes.

There are a couple of efforts to increase the number of transactions that can be included in a block. One has been implemented by a group that calls themselves "Bitcoin Core" and they call their changes "SegWit" (or Segregated Witness). The other has been implemented by a group that calls themselves "Bitcoin Unlimited" and they call their changes "Emergent Consensus". Each of the efforts has a different set of benefits and concerns. Getting either of them implemented will require an overwhelming majority to run the new software, and the community is currently largely split. Therefore, 1 megabyte blocks every 10 minutes on average is probably what we'll be stuck with for a while.

As the fees get higher, people will stop using bitcoins for small value transactions. This will slow down the rate that the backlog is growing until the number of transactions that are created per day is about the same as the number of transactions that can be confirmed per day.

Quote from: joeyjojoshb on May 26, 2017, 12:26:41 AM

What will happen when blocks are no longer being mined to make coins?

Blocks are not mined to make coins. Blocks are mined to confirm transactions. In exchange for providing this service to the community, the community agrees (by way of running software that implements the protocol) to allow the miner (or pool) to pay themselves the transaction fees from ALL the transactions included in their block plus a subsidy of brand new value that didn't come from anywhere else (in other words, inflation).

Quote from: joeyjojoshb on May 26, 2017, 12:26:41 AM

They will be purely transactions?

Yes. After the year 2140, when the last of the block subsidy has been paid out, the only reward they will get for solving a block will be the transaction fees.

Quote from: joeyjojoshb on May 26, 2017, 12:26:41 AM

Where is the size 1 meg?

That is a limit that every node on the network (and every other miner) enforces on every block. If any miner were to try to create a larger block, then it would be rejected by every node, and every wallet, and every miner as being "invalid".

Quote from: joeyjojoshb on May 26, 2017, 12:26:41 AM

a block is purely transactions. Whether you are mining for generating a new bitcoin or mining transactions there is no differences.

Correct. Actually at the technical level there isn't anything that is "a bitcoin". There are ONLY transactions stored in a ledger that we call "the blockchain".

Quote from: joeyjojoshb on May 26, 2017, 12:26:41 AM

I think there just needs to be less work then on making the difficulty so huge

There is no work being done on making the difficulty harder. That is automatic and has been built into the protocol and the software since Satoshi released the software in January of 2009. The difficulty sometimes gets harder and sometimes gets easier. It all depends on how much hashpower there is on the network, and how fast blocks are being broadcast.

Quote from: joeyjojoshb on May 26, 2017, 12:26:41 AM

and more work on making fees minimal, this is probobly a direction the dev's could go in.

They are trying to. But it requires EVERYONE to agree on a single solution, and right now it has been VERY difficult to get all users and developers to agree. This isn't a technical problem, it's a political one.

Quote from: joeyjojoshb on May 26, 2017, 12:26:41 AM

Or make the difficulty so large that its more profitable to mine transactions alone, instead of the transactions which produce a fresh bitcoin.

All blocks mine transactions alone. Fresh bitcoin is just a single special kind of transaction in the block.