Will There Be Enough Bitcoin For Everyone In The World?

Although Bitcoin has a finite supply, everyone in the world can own bitcoin. Based on the white paper released by Satoshi Nakomoto, the maximum number of bitcoin that will ever be in circulation is 21 million and that will be in 2140. By then the population of the world would have increased to over 10 billion people, so it makes sense to ask whether or not there will be enough Bitcoin for the entire world.

Bitcoin Divisibility

Keep in mind that Bitcoin is a digital currency. Like paper money, one of the main features of Bitcoin is divisibility. Currencies that have value must be able to function as a unit of exchange. In other words, for any currency to gain widespread use, it has to be broken down into smaller units so it can be accounted for.

As you may already know 1 dollar bill can be broken into 100 pennies and 1 euro bill can be broken into 100 euro cents. In a similar way, 1 Bitcoin can be broken into smaller units. As the value of Bitcoin continues to rise, users can buy smaller units of the cryptocurrency instead of one entire Bitcoin all at once.

Unlike traditional currencies that use only 2 decimal places, Bitcoin uses 8 decimal places. What this means is that a single Bitcoin can be divided into 100 million pieces. The smallest faction of a Bitcoin (0.00000001) is known as satoshis or sats.

The divisibility of Bitcoin makes it perfect for micropayments that are impossible with fiat currencies as they do not possess that level of divisibility. And since there are 2.1 quadrillion satoshis, Bitcoin can be distributed throughout a global economy.

What’s more, the digital asset, Bitcoin, is infinitely divisible as the Bitcoin protocol and its related software can be modified to handle even smaller units. What this means is that Bitcoin can be further divided into 100 billion smaller parts in future if needed.

Will Everyone Own a Bitcoin?

At the time of writing, the price of a Bitcoin is around $22,000 USD, so it’s clear that not everyone will own a full Bitcoin. However, every one of us can own a fraction of a Bitcoin, known as sats. The number of individuals who will ever own a full Bitcoin will be extremely low in comparison to the billions of potential Bitcoin holders.

Furthermore, the protocol allows for only 21 million Bitcoin while the world’s population stands at over 7.97 billion people. That already shows that it’s impossible for everyone to own a full Bitcoin and that the future of ownership will be in sats.

Final Thoughts

Bitcoin passes the test of divisibility as it can be divided into infinite parts in the future. Its current design allows for a single Bitcoin to be divided into a million satoshis. In effect, we won’t have to worry in the future about how many Bitcoin goods and services cost in future as we will be dealing with sats and satoshis.