Quote from: Argwai96 on December 07, 2013, 05:42:23 AM

Quote from: dwdoc on December 07, 2013, 05:24:17 AM

Quote from: daisotope on December 07, 2013, 04:43:17 AM

Quote from: dwdoc on December 07, 2013, 04:35:08 AM

When most bitcoins have been mined it will eventually become impractical to generate high enough transaction fees to incentivise the hashing that maintains network integrity and prevents a 51% attack.

Yikes, I haven't heard this before. Has anyone done the math behind this? is it 100% certain? I will do the math myself if not.

http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/876/how-much-will-transaction-fees-eventually-be

This is perhaps the biggest flaw in Bitcoin at the moment: once mining rewards end there is no direct linkage between the amount of hashpower needed to secure the network and the incentive to mine.

if mining makes it that far it means bitcoins took off, which means they will be worth incredible amounts of money by then.

They will be worth nothing if you cannot prevent a 51% attack.