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Can someone explain the background to BIP42 please? (21 million fixed supply)
100 sats \ 9 comments \ @chungkingexpress 6 Apr 2023 bitcoin
In a recent thread asking what is the most important BIP I learned about BIP42 which established the fixed supply of 21m.
Given the importance of fixed supply in the Bitcoin story and how much it is referenced, can someone explain the background to this please? Was this a technical oversight by Satoshi in the original code implementation? Was Satoshi never interested in fixed supply? Was their discussion about this between 2009 and 2014 when this BIP was proposed?
"Although it is widely believed that Satoshi was an inflation-hating goldbug he never said this, and in fact programmed Bitcoin's money supply to grow indefinitely, forever. He modeled the monetary supply as 4 gold mines being discovered per mibillenium (1024 years), with equal intervals between them, each one being depleted over the course of 140 years."
Thanks! – CE
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927 sats \ 0 replies \ @POTUS 6 Apr 2023
I think bip42 fixed a bug and satoshi did mean to have a fixed 21 million coin suppli
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389 sats \ 2 replies \ @Murch 7 Apr 2023
It was a bug that was fixed, and for entertainment dressed up with some humor. Check the date the bip was published. ;)
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2 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek 7 Apr 2023
Ah, I see. That explains
is carefully written to rely on undefined behaviour in the C++ specification - perhaps so it can be hardware accelerated in future.
I guess, haha
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @chungkingexpress OP 7 Apr 2023
Nice. Deep humour!
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6 sats \ 2 replies \ @richnost 7 Apr 2023
Please note the day that this BIP was submitted. That might serve as a hint.
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6 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek 7 Apr 2023
The BIP is final. And the changes were merged. So I think the date is just a coincidence here.
For reference:
Standards Track BIPs consist of two parts, a design document and a reference implementation. The BIP should be reviewed and accepted before a reference implementation is begun, unless a reference implementation will aid people in studying the BIP. Standards Track BIPs must include an implementation -- in the form of code, a patch, or a URL to same -- before it can be considered Final.
Once a BIP has been accepted, the reference implementation must be completed. When the reference implementation is complete and accepted by the community, the status will be changed to "Final".
-- https://bips.xyz/1
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @richnost 7 Apr 2023
The bug and the fix was real. It addressed a scenario where the emission rate would reset back to 50 cyclically after 64 halvings. The BIP was an April Fool's Day joke that ascribed certain goofy ideas to Satoshi that are not corroborated by anything he ever said.
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2 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek 7 Apr 2023
is carefully written to rely on undefined behaviour in the C++ specification - perhaps so it can be hardware accelerated in future.
lol. Never heard of someone "carefuly writing" something to rely on "undefined behaviour".
That clearly looks like a bug. Even the total monetary supply chart given in the BIP.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @criptopanas 7 Apr 2023
https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0042.mediawiki
Some people says that it was a joke form April Fools' days.
Also, I just leaned about this BIP from my original post (#161015)
Too much to learnt!!!
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