So it is year 2024 and the max BTC supply is reached at ~21M.
I'll speculate that the price of energy around the world will be higher than it is today, so that will cut into the miners profits. They will also be receiving their BTC on fees alone, not the generation of BTC for completing the block (like today).
Will it be economical to continue mining BTC going forward? The large mining operations can always set up a solar panel system to reduce energy costs.
Even if some of the larger miners shut down, I'm sure there will be enough miners around the world where the blocks will still be completed, but it may take longer. (The mempool may grow like it did before X-mas last year) I'm not exactly sure how the lightning network will affect the mempool....?
Is it possible that the S/W for BTC may be augmented to a semi POS type of system?
Wrong prediction, the max supply of BTC will mine in 2140 because the amount to be mine will divide in two for four years. It means that as long as it will move every year, the amount of BTC mine will not reach the total supply until 2140.
BTC is proof of work and after it reached the total supply which is 21million BTC. The miner will make a profit to the transaction process.
I did not calculate the last bit of mining for BTC, I just read it somewhere and apparently the information that I read was incorrect. (And I am no veteran w/BTC or cryptos in general, but I have learned a lot so far)
With other digital currencies available, if the transactions costs are high w/BTC, people will not use it. (Well, I will not) If the miners need a high transaction fee to be profitable for them, I think that will be a problem... People are not going to put up with high transaction fees period......... They are better off using Western Union or Paypal... Who cares if you on a centralized network.
That is the problem by the next generation! 2140 is too far in our time! We are all dead if the miners will put high transaction fees. I have two assumptions if bitcoin supply will already circulate to our economy, one thing is that it will suffer to a catastrophic event by means of bitcoin's falling down or it will change its system, making it as proof of something than proof of work. Anyways, I never really matters that all. I just wanted to know when does bitcoin circulate its max supply so I gather some information.
P.S.
As of now, there are 16 million of bitcoins that already circulated to our economy but as I also take a look on what others speculations, bitcoin already achieved its max supply and I doubt of it.