Hey there,
I've got a question that's been bugging me: Why do people say Bitcoin has a "fixed supply" when new Bitcoins are made with every block, and we won't hit the max supply in our lifetimes?
Isn't this kinda like what traditional money does with endless printing? Let's chat about how Bitcoin's supply works and how it's different from regular money.
Are your children immortal because they won't die in your lifetime?
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I mean more that it's not "anti-inflationary" as of today because it's printed every now and then. Why hasn't it just been fully distibuted?
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the supply is "fixed" in 2 ways. the lifetime maximum btc and in that the issuance per block is known beforehand and purely programmatic.
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Yes but it can't be called "anti-inflationary" as of today because new btc are generated every 10 minutes. It's like the gov printing new cash every 10 minutes. Anti-inflationary will be when the 21m supply is reached.
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you asked why it is said to have a fixed supply, I answered.
I agree with your statement on btc as anti-inflationary. Stable, predictable inflation with an eventual endpoint (and far sooner point of near irrelevance) is the best that could be said.
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Let's take a deep dive into the source and the maths, but first we need to understand the current rules, in the beginning from the first block the reward for each block was 50 BTC, every 210 000 blocks the reward is cut in half. To verify this we can read the source code https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/dcfbf3c2107c3cb9d343ebfa0eee78278dea8d66/src/validation.cpp#L1630
So now we can start to test it
  1. First Halving (2012): 10,500,000 BTC (50 BTC per block * 210,000 blocks)
  2. Second Halving (2016): 5,250,000 BTC (25 BTC per block * 210,000 blocks)
  3. Third Halving (2020): 2,625,000 BTC (12.5 BTC per block * 210,000 blocks)
These are the present halving, as you can see the tola amount of bitcoin minted each halving decrease and will do that until it is down to 0 sats. So down the road the last halving will have a reward on 1 sats for every block somewhere around year 2140.
So if you would summarise the amount of new coins for all halvings that number would print 21 000 000.
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It's disinflationary. Everyone running a node has a copy of the blockchain. Its distribution schedule is fixed. Every 4 years that distribution amount is cut in half in an event known as the halving. Over 92% of all bitcoin has been mined. Do the math. There isn't a hard cap coded into the software, but the distribution halving brings issuance to effectively zero around 2140, which is about the same as a hard cap.
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Some people say "There are already 21 million Bitcoin" its just distributed with every block.
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fixed supply = the last bitcoins will be mined in 2140.
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Yes, so I don't know why everyone thinks btc is anti-inflationary by having a "fixed supply".
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bitcoin is not anti-flationary.
Maybe long term inflation hedge?historically every 4 years, the purchasing power of bitcoin is more than a regular banking savings interest account/yearly inflation rate of the economy.
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If what worries you is that it will not reach maximum supply in you lifetime, you can do the maths. You can think about the amount that has already been supplied compared to the amount that will be supplied in your lifetime.
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All starts there.
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reaching maximum supply is impossible within the next few years
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Blockchain generates 6.25 btc every block. It's printing.
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Why is something "anti-inflationary" if the whitepaper says that btc are generated every block?
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