BTC will be fully in existence and all mining activities will have to cease at the time.
I though this was basic knowledge for all Bitcoin supporters, that mining doesn't stop even after the entire Bitcoin supply has been mined.
But I don't understand this, can you explain more clearly? When all 21 million bitcoins have been mined, what does it mean to maintain mining machines? And who will operate those miners if they are no longer profitable for miners? I believe that if the price of bitcoin does not continue to increase and is no longer profitable for miners, then miners will soon give up mining and we do not need to wait until all the bitcoins are mined.
Also, we have no certainty that bitcoin will exist until then, discussion of what will happen in the next 100 years is quite vague.
It's a bit of a surprise that somebody who is a hero member and has been on the forum for more than 8 years thinks that mining stops as soon as all coins are mined.
Anyway, the role of miners is not merely to
mine or extract coins as if they're miners of gold or whatever precious stone and metal, such that when the supply is depleted there's nothing else to mine and the operations stop. The role of miners in the Bitcoin system is to process transactions and add them to the blockchain. So, they continue to have an essential role even after the last Satoshi is mined. Transactions won't be confirmed without them.
If it isn't anymore profitable to mine, then many will stop. As a result, the difficulty in mining will fall. It may reach to a point when even a personal computer at home could be able to perform it. In which case, profit would be realized once again.
Whether we want to or not, we cannot wait until all coins are mined. We'd all be dead by then.
Of course the role of miners may have to only become restricted to fewer tasks of which involves adding blocks of transactions to the Blockchain. The fees they earn by then may have to be lower than it is now and am sure only fewer miners will stick to just that task and this may lead some into other areas.
Who's to say whether the roles of miners will be lesser, if not more?
We know that innovations can be developed to involve the help of miners and developers and just like the idea of cryptocurrencies, such innovations can help reshape the human race of technology and the fact that Blockchain technology doesn't only serve the cryptocurrency or mining industry makes whatever happens before 2140 very unpredictable for me except for Bitcoin idea of halving already in motion and would be complete by 2140.
AI, web3, Hedera Hashgraph, virtual reality is already being integrated into several sectors and soon don't we think AI will take over the jobs of miners before 2140, even if we don't get to be alive by then?