What if bitcoin seems to average about 7500 USD or so over a very long period, like a year or even more. Currently, this isn't high enough of a value in USD to really mine anymore with GPU's, if mining for profit in USD anyways. I do not mine with ASIC miners and I really know very little about them, even though I almost bought a Bitmain Antiminer S9 before I build my 8 GPU rig.
Will mining taper off to little to nothing, will difficulty levels be adjusted to compensate miners, or what else?
I would be interested to know some thinking on this, should it become a reality or even close to a reality for some length of time.
If price stays stagnant long enough, then the difficulty trend
should reverse as unprofitable miners shut down their rigs. Difficulty should broadly follow price (though it does so inefficiently).
But it's a question of time. I think the new mining manufacturers competing with Bitmain and many of the larger mining operations are very well capitalized and can weather the storm for many months or probably years. I wouldn't be surprised to see difficulty hold strong through a prolonged corrective or bear market.