In the whitepaper

6. Incentive ...Once a predetermined number of coins have entered circulation, the incentive can transition entirely to transaction fees and be completely inflation free.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/94r41n/satoshi_did_not_propose_the_21_million_setsupply/

BIP42 is not where the 21 million supply comes from. If you read any document about Bitcoin's early history the 21 million limit is almost universally mentioned. I guess there are many people these days that didn't know Bitcoin before 2014, but it wasn't that long ago. It seems completely unrealistic to think the Bitcoin ecosystem would ever have accepted such a dramatic change in its economic policy. Having the policy being fixed in stone and beyond influence of a central bank - or anyone - is one of Bitcoin's primary selling points.

Furthermore, BIP42 doesn't even claim that it is the origin of the 21 million limit. It claims (jokingly) that Bitcoin was designed to look like it had a 21 million limit, but through underhanded programming didn't actually do that.

The reality is that ever since the January 2009 release of the software, the 21 million limit was there, coded in by Satoshi. In March 2014, "ditto-b" on Github noticed a bug in the implementation in Bitcoin Core (and not in other software), that would result to start another cycle of 21 million bitcoins to be issued 250 years in the future. We took advantage of that situation to write an April's Fools BIP that proposed his fix as an actual consensus rule change (which was correct), but also incorrectly misrepresented reality as that bug being intentional.

What a neat little tidbit of info! Thanks for the BIP link, that shit's hilarious 😂

After the last halving

Glad they caught it in time. That was close!

#574451

The "MAX_MONEY" constant in Bitcoin's code represents a sanity check limit, not an exact hard-coded cap on the total supply of bitcoins. Here are the key points:

• The MAX_MONEY constant is set to 21,000,000 * COIN (where COIN = 100,000,000 satoshis), which equals 2,099,999,997,690,000 satoshis or approximately 20,999,999.9769 BTC.[1][2]
• This constant is used as a sanity check in consensus validation code to prevent integer overflows or other errors that could create bitcoins out of thin air.[1][2]
• However, the actual maximum supply of bitcoins is determined by the mining subsidy schedule defined in the GetBlockSubsidy() function, which halves the block reward roughly every 4 years.[3]
• Summing up all the mining rewards over time until the last halving (around 33 halvings) results in a total supply of approximately 20,999,999.9769 BTC, slightly less than the MAX_MONEY constant.[1][3]
• So while MAX_MONEY is an important sanity check, it is not the exact rule that caps Bitcoin's supply. The mining subsidy schedule is what effectively determines the maximum supply over time.[1][3]

In essence, the MAX_MONEY constant provides an upper bound for validation purposes, while the precise maximum supply emerges from the diminishing block reward schedule hardcoded into Bitcoin's protocol rules.[1][2][3]

Sources [1] Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #270 https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2023/09/27/ [2] Where is the bitcoin source code is the 21 million hard cap stated? https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/119475/where-is-the-bitcoin-source-code-is-the-21-million-hard-cap-stated [3] Total coin supply, how it works, and what the code means? https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47876960/total-coin-supply-how-it-works-and-what-the-code-means [4] The 21 Million Bitcoin Myth: Understanding the Code Behind It https://blog.bitwage.com/21-million-bitcoin-myth/ [5] Technical question about Bitcoin code regarding fixed supply of 21 ... https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/gcmws5/technical_question_about_bitcoin_code_regarding/?rdt=36630

Why use the term "42 Halfmillion"?

I just turned to my 17 year old "Did you know Bitcoin Core did not initially have a 21M cap limit?". Straight off the bat he said "I did, yeah, I remember reading about that" What a geek LOL Makes me proud XD Thanks for the links, I'm sending them onto him.

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