Published on: 2022-03-05T19:13:27+00:00
Asher Hopp, a new contributor to the bitcoin-dev mailing list, has proposed a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) that suggests changing the maximum supply of bitcoin from 21 million to 21 trillion. This would be achieved by moving the decimal place six places to the right while still allowing for two degrees of accuracy after the decimal point.Hopp's proposal is based on a suggestion made by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2010 regarding how the display shows the decimal point and commas when interpreting a bitcoin wallet's balance. The aim of this change is to address the negative perception of bitcoin's unit size, promote community cohesion, and simplify standardization across different regions.While Hopp acknowledges that there may be a psychological drawback to this proposal, as Bitcoin detractors could spread misinformation about the monetary value of anyone's bitcoin, he believes that the benefits outweigh this concern. Implementing this BIP would require updating the configuration of wallets' CLI/GUI displays. However, it is important to note that the proposal is backward compatible with previous versions of Bitcoin, meaning there would be no interruption in services for Bitcoin wallets that do not implement this BIP.The proposed change offers several advantages, including addressing unit bias, promoting community unity, simplifying standardization, and potentially facilitating wider adoption of Bitcoin. Moving the decimal place six places to the right in the display of a wallet's balance can easily be accomplished through software updates.In conclusion, Asher Hopp's BIP draft recommends changing the maximum supply of bitcoin from 21 million to 21 trillion by moving the decimal place six places to the right. The proposal is based on Satoshi Nakamoto's suggestion in 2010 and aims to improve Bitcoin's adoption and address concerns related to unit size. While there may be some psychological challenges, the proposal is backward compatible and does not disrupt existing Bitcoin services.
Updated on: 2023-08-02T05:48:15.629878+00:00