Blockstream CEO Adam Back has weighed in on the most recent controversy surrounding Bitcoin and financial titan BlackRock.
According to the prominent British cryptographer, who was cited in Satoshi Nakamoto's white paper, the scarcity of the leading cryptocurrency is not under threat despite some speculation within the community.
Earlier this week, MicroStrategy's Michael Saylor shared a relatively benign education clip from BlackRock about Bitcoin. However, some of his followers were quick to notice a disconcerting disclaimer about how there was no guarantee that the maximum number of Bitcoins in existence will be capped at 21 million.
Entertaining the idea of increasing Bitcoin's maximum supply limit has always been treated as heresy by members of the Bitcoin community.
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The cryptocurrency's limited supply has always been considered to be one of its main value propositions, as opposed to fiat currencies and some inflationary altcoins.
However, Back has downplayed the BlackRock disclaimer as merely some "cautious legal coverage." According to him, it is obvious that BlackRock's lawyers made them add the legal fine print since the financial giant is selling products that they have no control over. "It's just their lawyers making sure they don't get sued if the community changed the number and they'd sold bitcoin ETFs saying it could never be over 21m," he said.
That said, the disclaimer is meaningless since the community is not going to increase Bitcoin's maximum supply.
Charlie Shrem, an early Bitcoin advocate, has opined that abandoning the 21 million cap would turn the largest cryptocurrency into an entirely different coin.
