There's a total limit of the number of Bitcoins that will ever be available, once this is completely mined and available to the public there is nothing further Bitcoins. The total number of Bitcoins is 21 Million. However, at the time of when the last Bitcoin is produced the total number in actual circulation will be far less than the 21 Million.
Why?
When Bitcoins were first introduced it was far less than a Niche product. It was being mined by people who were interested in it. It probably didn't have a lot of value at that time, and over the years some of the early Bitcoins that have been mined are now probably lost. For example, I mined Bitcoins in the early years, it had no value, I grew up changed computers and didn't think of backing anything up. I can't even recall how many I had - but I did have a handful. I'm sure I'm not the only that did this, so this leaves a hole in the total number of Bitcoins.So what happens to them?
This also happens to cash, you leave it in your pocket, you drop it in a river, or you simply misplace it - or it is sitting under your couch. However, with normal currency additional currency is printed and produced - this is not the case with Bitcoins. It needs to be reclaimed from the original wallet - if the person that had the wallet no longer remembers their password, then the only option is to hack the wallet, if you can successfully crack the wallets then the whole Bitcoin security will come crumbling down.The reality is Bitcoin has a lot of appeal on how currency can be digitised, however, it is going up against financial institutions and governments who have a lot of vested interest in their ecosystems. For the time being the total price of Bitcoin is purely speculations, it may one day be worth $100,000 or it may just fall off the cliff.
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