I have a noob bitcoin question. Even after all the bitcoins are mined there will still be a need for "mining" for all the active transactions, correct? How does that work?
The block reward, which halves every once in a while, eventually hitting 0 after all are mined
And then the transaction fees. Basically if I want to send a BTC to somebody, I send the coin to them, and also sign over a small extra amount as a transaction fee. A miner who solves a block (ie, a bundle of transactions) can send those fees anywhere they like (their own account).
So in a long-run situation, mining effort will balance out transaction fees to come to some sort of equilibrium.
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I have a noob bitcoin question. Even after all the bitcoins are mined there will still be a need for "mining" for all the active transactions, correct? How does that work?
There are two ways to get bitcoins from mining.
The block reward, which halves every once in a while, eventually hitting 0 after all are mined
And then the transaction fees. Basically if I want to send a BTC to somebody, I send the coin to them, and also sign over a small extra amount as a transaction fee. A miner who solves a block (ie, a bundle of transactions) can send those fees anywhere they like (their own account).
So in a long-run situation, mining effort will balance out transaction fees to come to some sort of equilibrium.