5 ms·
I love the idea of alternate currencies and think BitCoin is a step in the right direction but this article points out the obvious -- the # of bitcoins does not
by feydr 15y ago
I love the idea of alternate currencies and think BitCoin is a step in the right direction but this article points out the obvious -- the # of bitcoins does not grow is a straight up lie. I don't know why people keep believing this when you can look at the design and plainly see that it's not true.
- weavejester 15y agoIt's only "not true" if you fork the protocol and create an independent currency.
- euccastro 15y agoThe # of bitcoins will grow up until an established number, ~21M. That's what's being advertised.
- cpeterso 15y agoWhy 21M bitcoins? Wikipedia doesn't explain.
- vessenes 15y agoThe published spec conceives of halving the number of bitcoins a block miner receives every n years (4 or so?). Right now, a block miner will get 50 BTC. In a year or two, they'll only get 25. A few years later, 12.5. The Sum of the BTC generated before the block generation gets really really little is roughly 21 million. As has been pointed out copiously today, that's a convention that BTC clients and users all claim to agree to. It seems likely to me that they will continue to agree to it, and it also seems likely to me that the major hurdle will be the first '25 BTC/block' downgrade. If the community survives that, the others will likely follow easily.