We can be very confident that they are not happy, but they're probably not that sad too. I believe that in two or three more halvings they will be VERY SAD unless the price surges to more than $500,000 per Bitcoin. Because if it will stay below a minimum price level to make mining profitable, the miners might start a narrative to remove the 21,000,000 supply limit.

Shower thought. If it's truly a situation of life or death for miners, would you consider supporting a change in Bitcoin's supply limit?

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@bitmover
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That would be the most perfect of all possibilities, that fees from transactions will be enough to secure the network. But what sort of transactions will it be?

Actually there is a very good reason for Bitcoin-backed banks to exist, issuing their own digital cash currency, redeemable for bitcoins. Bitcoin itself cannot scale to have every single financial transaction in the world be broadcast to everyone and included in the block chain. There needs to be a secondary level of payment systems which is lighter weight and more efficient. Likewise, the time needed for Bitcoin transactions to finalize will be impractical for medium to large value purchases.

Bitcoin backed banks will solve these problems. They can work like banks did before nationalization of currency. Different banks can have different policies, some more aggressive, some more conservative. Some would be fractional reserve while others may be 100% Bitcoin backed. Interest rates may vary. Cash from some banks may trade at a discount to that from others.

George Selgin has worked out the theory of competitive free banking in detail, and he argues that such a system would be stable, inflation resistant and self-regulating.

I believe this will be the ultimate fate of Bitcoin, to be the "high-powered money" that serves as a reserve currency for banks that issue their own digital cash. Most Bitcoin transactions will occur between banks, to settle net transfers. Bitcoin transactions by private individuals will be as rare as... well, as Bitcoin based purchases are today.