Satoshi didn't explain it very well other than that he put allot of care into it. He mentions its a 64bit value, but nothing about 21x10^14 being about half the maximum representation of a positive integer by a 64bit float.
I suspect 21 was chosen based on a convergence of low risk of improper computation due to overflows when adding or subtracting two sums, and a coincidence of 7x3 which are two "perfect" numbers.
7 represents God, and 3 represents the physical universe. One could say that 21 is God's perfection manifested in the universe, or said another way; Bitcoin is condensed energy in the information realm akin to a Szilard engine
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it's also half of 42, which is the answer to the universe. I guess that means Bitcoin is half the answer to the universe. I wonder what the other half could be?
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How do I get out of this simulation we're in?
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It's interesting to see how Mike's Bitcoin journey started. His later long and in-depth Bitcoin articles have positively influenced mine. I've always enjoyed reading his blog posts, whether or not bitcoin related...
I notice his address still holds the 82 bitcoins. I thought he had gotten rid of all his bitcoins when he left the project, or probably, he just lost the key.
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I find this answer better:
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I trust satoshi's writing more than I trust guesses about his thoughts, but that is a really fun answer.
Javascript numbers are weird, but I doubt Satoshi thought much about javascript at all. AFAIK he didn't have much experience working with it.
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It's not a Javascript thing, it's a IEEE standard:
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Should have been 42
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будь внимательнее! 21 000 000 это 33 халвинга .Возрост Иисуса
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