If bitcoins are unregulated, this means that bitcoins are constantly circulating right? It's not like government money that is constantly tossed while new crisp bills are being made. Eventually this means that there will be so many bitcoins as they get mined that a single bitcoin will have nearly no value, right? Or am I missing something?
You couldn't have it more wrong.
Money circulating doesn't create new money. If I have one Bitcoin and I spend it with you, now you have one Bitcoin and I have none. There is no increase in the number of Bitcoins.
Ah, crazy-hazy-money-economics! If I invest one btc in a miner's company, I still own one BTC, but the miner's company also owns one btc ... it's the same with the banks: I give some sum on my account, the bank lends it to another bank, this to a customer, the customer to a friend and so on ... officially the sum remains the same, but for the use of it it's rising.
Yeah no that isn't the case. You no longer have 1 BTC. You have 1 share of a company which have different valuation, liquidity, and counterparty risk as an ACTUAL BTC.
In fractional reserve banking when you deposit $x and the bank loans out $0.9x both "monies" are functionally identical. They all shares the same counterparty risk, the same liquidity, the same valuation. No store is going to say "hey is this dollar bill the product of a loan deposit or is it unencumbered". Name me one BTC merchant which accepts shares of mining companies as a equivalence for BTC. I will wait.