The largest asset management firm, BlackRock,is challenging the certainty of Bitcoin’s 21 million cap.
🟢Recently,BlackRock stated in a published video:“There is no guarantee that the 21 million Bitcoin supply cap will not change.”
🟢Why did they say that?
Because Bitcoin has no central authority, BlackRock has no right to enact or guarantee the 21 million cap.
🟢Does this mean there will be more than 21 million Bitcoin?⤵️
The answer is that no one can guarantee how many Bitcoins will eventually exist.
🟢 So how do people arrive at the 21 million number?
It comes from pure mathematics.🖥️
Satoshi Nakamoto started mining Bitcoin, and every 10 minutes,a new block is added to the blockchain.
In each new block,all transactions that have occurred on the Bitcoin network in the last 10 minutes are recorded.The computer that solves the mathematical puzzle defined by the Bitcoin network gets a reward in newly minted Bitcoin.
In the early days of 2009,when Satoshi started mining,a new block was added to the network to reward miners with 50 Bitcoins.There is a halving mechanism built into the system.
🔴What does this mean?⤵️
Every 210,000 blocks,the block reward is reduced by half.
For example,at block 210,000,the reward was reduced to 25 Bitcoins.Similarly,at block 420,000,miners started receiving 12.5 Bitcoins.Currently,miners earn 3.125 Bitcoins per block.
This process continues until the year 2140, when the reward reaches zero,and no new coins will be minted.This is how the 21 million bitcoin cap is mathematically encoded into the system.