Just to preface this, I think Bitcoin is super cool and I hate fiat money and I'd love to see Bitcoin stand the test of time so I'm not hating on Bitcoin here but I do have a concern about the future. That said…
I'm not a Bitcoin expert so maybe hundreds of you can put this to rest for me but something has been keeping me up at night. If Bitcoin transactions are verified by those who "mine" Bitcoin and miners agree to "mine" Bitcoin because they get paid to do so (in Bitcoin), then what happens when all Bitcoins have been mined and/or when the energy and maintenance costs to verify transactions no longer becomes profitable? Bitcoin is not like gold/silver in the sense that gold/silver can be weighed on a physical device (a scale) prior to trading and it costs those trading the gold/silver virtually nothing to do so. Bitcoin on the other hand relies on a blockchain of servers that must be kept running and operating in order for the system to work, right? So once all Bitcoins have been mined and people still want to use it, how will those verifying transactions get paid to do so and how will that happen unless they charge fees to do so? What will they charge? 1% per transaction? 2.5%? More? It will still cost everyone something to use Bitcoin just as it costs everyone something to accept the digital form of fiat currencies via online processing companies like VISA/PAYPAL/etc. What will these fees be? How will they be set/calculated/regulated? Most importantly, if not a government, who will have the final say on setting transaction fees and who will determine what is a fair price to charge? The open market? Right now, Bitcoin miners only make $75,000/yr at best. That's barely enough to survive in most US cities. Will they still be happy with that? I'd be willing to bet the answer is "no". And if a transaction fee has already been set and I just don't know about it, what happens when the cost of energy and maintenance inflates so much that verifying transactions is not longer profitable or even a break-even situation? I look forward to you all telling me this has already been figured out and I have nothing to worry about. Thanks in advance!!
submitted by /u/puff-the-magic-dragn
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