Will Bitcoin Last Forever? An Expert's Perspective

The bitcoin supply is limited to a final limit of 21 million coins determined by its creator(s). Will cryptocurrencies last forever? No one can say for sure but thanks to how blockchain works it would be incredibly difficult to get rid of it.

Will Bitcoin Last Forever? An Expert's Perspective

The Bitcoin ecosystem is still in its infancy, making it possible, if not likely, that Bitcoin itself will continue to evolve in the coming decades. But regardless of how Bitcoin evolves, no new bitcoins will be released after the limit of 21 million coins is reached. The bitcoin supply is limited to a final limit of 21 million, determined by the bitcoin source code programmed by its creator(s), Satoshi Nakamoto, and cannot be changed. Once all bitcoins have been mined, the amount of coins in circulation will remain fixed at that level permanently.

Throughout history, every coin that has come into circulation has been devalued to 0, so can cryptocurrency last forever? If Bitcoin is being seen as “digital gold” due to its similar properties to the precious metal, some wonder, how long will Bitcoin exist? Will cryptocurrencies last forever? No one can say for sure, but thanks to the way Bitcoin blockchain works, it would be incredibly difficult to get rid of it; it is currently not possible to delete blockchain, and it seems like a very unlikely option for the foreseeable future. Bitcoin will never “run out” as more than 18 million Bitcoin has already been mined and ultimately there will be 21 million in the system. However, the introduction of new supplies will eventually stop. This is one of the reasons why Bitcoin bulls aggressively promote cryptocurrency. In their opinion, the increase in demand for Bitcoin will eventually exceed the limited supply, which will drive prices up exponentially.

While Bitcoin Futures Follow General Trends of Real Cryptocurrency, Experts Say It May Not Track Bitcoin Price Directly. From a user's perspective, Bitcoin is nothing more than a mobile application or a computer program that provides a personal Bitcoin wallet and allows them to send and receive bitcoins with them. Although these events are unfortunate, none of them imply that Bitcoin itself is hacked, nor does it imply flaws inherent to Bitcoin; just as a bank robbery does not mean that the dollar is compromised. The Bitcoin protocol and software are openly released and any developer in the world can review the code or create their own modified version of the Bitcoin software. Bitcoin miners will be able to continue earning block rewards until a total of 21 million BTC have been minted, after which no new Bitcoin will enter into circulation.

Because Bitcoin is still a relatively small market compared to what it could be, it doesn't take significant amounts of money to push the market price up or down, and therefore, the price of a bitcoin is still very volatile. However, this situation does not suggest that markets are not vulnerable to price manipulation; significant amounts of money are not yet needed to drive up or down the market price, and therefore Bitcoin remains a volatile asset until now. That's the doomsday warning for the Bitcoin network, but many believe miners will stay the course even when transaction fees are their only reward. Given how important this update would be, you can safely expect it to be highly reviewed by developers and adopted by all Bitcoin users. As such, the identity of the inventor of Bitcoin is probably as relevant today as the identity of the person who invented paper. Obviously, if most miners or even all miners stopped mining Bitcoin, then the Bitcoin network would change in many ways forever.

While many investors have been enthusiastic about the prospect of getting rich by investing in Bitcoin, not many people understand exactly what Bitcoin is or how it works. Concerns have been raised that Bitcoin could be more attractive to criminals because it can be used to make private and irreversible payments. Bitcoin is a space for growing innovation and there are business opportunities that also include risks. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are outflows of unspent transactions from previous transactions on the blockchain.