Is 21 million Bitcoin the ideal amount of Bitcoin that should ever exist?
259 sats \ 21 comments \ @Taft 30 Jun bitcoin
Bitcoin scarcity refers to the limited supply of Bitcoin, which is capped at 21 million coins. This scarcity is by design and is one of the key features of Bitcoin as defined by its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.
Right?
This scarcity is one of the factors that can contribute to Bitcoin's value and its appeal as a digital store of value.
But, what would have happened if the total number of Bitcoins was higher than 21 million?
What about lower than 21 million?
Could it affect the value of Bitcoin, either positively or negatively?
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31 sats \ 3 replies \ @grayruby 30 Jun
The amount of supply is less relevant than the supply cap and schedule.
If I had one qualm about the issuance schedule, I think the halvings should have been spread out a bit more.
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41 sats \ 0 replies \ @Taft OP 30 Jun
That’s interesting. Hadn’t thought about it.
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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @freetx 1 Jul
I think the halvings should have been spread out a bit more.
I can imagine how that would be attractive...however would a more spread out halving schedule worked in the early years?
Imagine an 12 yr halving schedule...that might have resulted in Bitcoin never gaining traction because those supply shocks weren't available often enough. Perhaps 4 years now feels "too short" only because Bitcoin has been a success more or less.
Maybe a halving schedule that grows by 20% each cycle. 4 years, 4.8, 5.8, 6.9, 8.3, etc...
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @grayruby 1 Jul
You are right about the early years. It’s a good point. I kind of like your idea and maybe you even start at every 100,000 blocks then add 50k blocks each time.
So first halving would have been block 100k, then next block 250k, then 450k, then 700k then 1M and so on. So there would have been more halvings in the first 15 years but they would be more spread out beyond that.
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71 sats \ 1 reply \ @cristaiji 30 Jun
I found this after a quick search. So it was possibly to do with M1 money supply. https://decrypt.co/34876/why-is-bitcoins-supply-limit-set-to-21-million
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @quark 30 Jun
and, if that is the case, the thing is that the M1 supply in the world increases a lot because fiat is dying each year, so Bitcoin is even much more valuable each year than the original M1 that was designed for.
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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @jgbtc 1 Jul
The particular number doesn't matter, only that it can't be changed.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 1 Jul
Yes 💯
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21 sats \ 2 replies \ @DiracDelta 1 Jul
Khan Academy videos for middle school students. Stop thinking your thinking. You are like an animal. Step 1: humility.
The good news: with humility, you will be functionally much smarter than the typical midwit smart person.
Fuck, everyone else here is retarded too.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bell_curve 1 Jul
Dunning Krueger effect
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19 sats \ 0 replies \ @DiracDelta 1 Jul
It's not even that. I wish it were that it's just unrelatable to me how retarded these people are, but it's below midwit. There is something psychologically wrong with them.
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21 sats \ 3 replies \ @cristaiji 30 Jun
I dunno but it’s a good question. I was under the impression that the 21m number was arbitrary and may have been chosen for symbolic reasons rather than mathematical?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 30 Jun
The actual number of Bitcoins is slightly less than 21 million due to the way the Bitcoin code works. Here's a concise explanation:
The Bitcoin code controls the inflation schedule by defining how many new Bitcoins are created every 210,000 blocks, with the subsidy halving approximately every four years. After 33 halvings, the subsidy for miners becomes 0. Adding up all these subsidies over time results in approximately 20,999,999.9769 Bitcoins, not exactly 21 million.[1][4]
The Bitcoin code contains a constant called "MAX_MONEY," which is set at 21 million Bitcoins, but this is more of a safety check than a strict limit. While the 21 million figure is a good approximation, it's essential to understand that Bitcoin's supply isn't fixed at that number in the code itself.[4]
Sources [1] What Happens to Bitcoin After All 21 Million Are Mined? - Investopedia https://www.investopedia.com/tech/what-happens-bitcoin-after-21-million-mined/ [2] 21 million is relatively small : r/Bitcoin - Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/16mgget/21_million_is_relatively_small/ [3] Bitcoin's 21 million limit is a boomer myth - Blockworks https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoins-21-million-limit-myth [4] The 21 Million Bitcoin Myth: Understanding the Code Behind It https://blog.bitwage.com/21-million-bitcoin-myth/ [5] What actually caps Bitcoin's supply at 21 million? https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/100639/what-actually-caps-bitcoins-supply-at-21-million
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bell_curve 30 Jun
Not arbitrary
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 30 Jun
The actual supply after the final halving will be slightly less, a trivial infinitesimal amount
20,999,999.9975553
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BitSapien 1 Jul
I think the amount doesn't matter as long as its fixed in supply and can be infinitely divisible.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Satosora 30 Jun
In fact, we do have a global supply that is much lower than 21 million. Accounting for the fact that some of the coins are lost, and the rest havent been mined. As we go farther into the bitcoin horizon, we will see even more coins lost, making bitcoin even more valuable.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @16d86e9daa 30 Jun
The total number of bitcoins issued is not expected to reach 21 million. That's because the Bitcoin network uses bit-shift operators—arithmetic operators that round some decimal points down to the closest smallest integer.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @MB 30 Jun
Probably depends on how much value 1 sat becomes. For example if a car costs 1 sat to buy then there needs to be a way to split this even further. Onboarding the whole world means 21 million Bitcoin seems a little small.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SatsMate 30 Jun
21M Is all that is needed. In the future if individual satoshis get more valuable, we can just change the unit of account to milli-satoshis. There can't be more than 21M Bitcoin and 2.1 Quadrillion satoshis
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @MANI 30 Jun
Nope. 21 million is too little imo but what do i know…
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