Don't Expect Bitcoin's Supply to Change, Says Lead Maintainer Wlad van der Laan

gepubliceerd op by Coindesk | gepubliceerd op

Wladimir van der Laan, the lead maintainer of bitcoin's most widely used software, has harsh words for those engaged in an ongoing debate about whether the cryptocurrency's finite supply will ever be increased.

Despite the fact that the software is programmed to issue 21 million bitcoins, an aspect of the code that would require everyone running the bitcoin software update to change, that hasn't stopped speculation over the years that an adjustment might be needed.

Most recently, developer Matt Huong floated the idea of increasing the supply of bitcoins in circulation - very informally - just as a possible way to reduce future fees.

Adding to the confusion, Jiang Zhuoer, CEO of bitcoin mining pool BTC.TOP, inaccurately argued on Chinese microblogging site Weibo that developers have long been planning to increase the supply.

An important figure most visible to bitcoin's open-source developer community, van der Laan leads a weekly meeting over the chat program IRC to discuss the project's technical roadmap.

Still, van der Laan sees such a stance as one that advocates for diminishing not just bitcoin's value, but one of its core features setting it apart from other digital projects.

The key contention from Zhuoer was that bitcoin's developers agreed to increase the supply and were making plans to, as if changing this property of bitcoin was something they could do with a snap of their fingers.

Due to how bitcoin technology works - or is supposed to work - bitcoin doesn't have a set of leaders which can decide to change how the cryptocurrency works on a whim.

Van der Laan argued that if the developers behind Bitcoin Core ever tried to push through such a thing, people shouldn't follow them.

When CoinDesk asked how much power the volunteer group of developers around the currency, Bitcoin Core, has - and if the developers could conceivably push through a supply increase if they decided to do so - he elaborated: "I certainly *hope* that's not the case. I've always tried to prevent this."

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