There’s been renewed discussion over whether Bitcoin’s 21 million supply cap is fixed or alterable, after BlackRock posted a video outlining the cryptocurrency, but including the caveat that the 21 million cap is not guaranteed to remain static. The cap is central to Bitcoin’s potential as a store of value, and an uncapping would likely influence how investors perceive the currency.
The video was shared by MicroStrategy chair Michael Saylor, leading some critics to argue that Bitcoin doesn’t have inherent scarcity. The actuality of altering Bitcoin’s cap hinges on interpretation of what “Bitcoin” constitutes. A hard fork may be implemented with broad community consensus, but whatever resulted from that would be a new, separate blockchain, not Bitcoin itself.
Bitcoin’s economic incentives for miners require a continuous increase in Bitcoin’s price and/or transaction fees; if not, the miners’ economic incentive declines. Mining pool viaBTC asserted in May that development of Bitcoin’s applications layer is needed to remunerate miners adequately in coming decades.
The Blocksize War of 2016-2017 illustrates this: despite miners agreeing to a block size limit increase, most nodes didn’t adopt, and developers instead started implementing layer 2 solutions.
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