[Snoozus]

If everyone stopped mining transactions couldn't go through anymore and the value of bitcoin would drop. If you're heavily invested in bitcoin that's bad. Also miners try to squeeze in their preferred transactions which they can't do when they're not mining. Finally the costs dont drop to zero when you turn the miners off, so the loss from mining might be less than the loss when not mining.

[derangedHorse]

He's not saying everyone, just the ones who are unprofitable. Not everyone mines bitcoin at the same cost. The ones who do have to stop can also profit from curtailment depending on the price of energy relative to hash profit.

[illiac786]

Isn’t mining and transactions separate? Sure you need to have online participants, but they don’t have to actively mine, right?

[arter45]

You can generate transactions but ultimately transactions are validated and written in the blockchain by miners. Mining is essentially a way to select voters based on their ability to solve puzzles, ensuring that if you are selected once you have no particular advantage next time. Without miners this whole system doesn’t work.

[OJFord]

No, mining is exactly what makes transactions go through, computing the next result in chain, certifying that the transaction happened.

[singpolyma3]

What? That's not true. You don't need more than one CPU miner online for tx to go through. That's why there are difficulty adjustments.

[nytesky]

But as number of miners drop arent btc at risk of a 50% attack?

[groundzeros2015]

But if you have anywhere near the market power to do a 50% attack, you can make a lot of money mining.