> Less transactions in the blockchain means less money to be made mining
I don't think that's actually true. Mining earns money through transaction fees and the mining block reward.
The block reward is directly set by an algorithm which lowers the amount over time. Transaction volume is totally irrelevant.
Miners and users set the transaction fee by choosing what they'll accept, so it should respond directly to supply and demand. If the Jevons Paradox [1] holds, making transactions cheaper means that there will be more of them, so even though on-chain Bitcoin transactions now account for less than 100% of transactions denominated in BTC, that doesn't necessarily mean that there will be fewer total on-chain Bitcoin transactions. So transaction fees paid to miners might not actually go down, either.
I don't think that's actually true. Mining earns money through transaction fees and the mining block reward.
The block reward is directly set by an algorithm which lowers the amount over time. Transaction volume is totally irrelevant.
Miners and users set the transaction fee by choosing what they'll accept, so it should respond directly to supply and demand. If the Jevons Paradox [1] holds, making transactions cheaper means that there will be more of them, so even though on-chain Bitcoin transactions now account for less than 100% of transactions denominated in BTC, that doesn't necessarily mean that there will be fewer total on-chain Bitcoin transactions. So transaction fees paid to miners might not actually go down, either.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox