A heated debate has erupted in the crypto community, touching on one of Bitcoin's fundamental principles: its hard cap of 21 million coins. The dispute was sparked by Eli Ben-Sasson, co-founder of StarkWare and one of the creators of Zcash. He argued that Bitcoin's fixed supply makes no sense in the long term and proposed an alternative.
The Essence of the Proposal: Not Quantity, but Rate
Ben-Sasson bases his position on the inevitable loss of coins. In his logic, over an infinite time horizon, all wallet keys will be lost, rendering the current cap ineffective. Instead of a hard limit on total supply, he proposes fixing a maximum annual issuance rate at 4%. This figure, he believes, correlates with the growth rate of the human population and ensures that there will be "enough coins for everyone" in the future.
The key point of his idea is not to abandon scarcity, but to change the approach: limit not the total supply, but the rate of inflation. Ben-Sasson emphasizes that he supports "clear monetary policy with an absolute upper bound," but believes the fixed coin count format is outdated and carries risks for network security. He points to the "security budget" problem: as the block reward approaches zero, the network will have to rely solely on fees, which could make it vulnerable.
Community Reaction: "Sacred Cows" Under Attack
The idea was met with fierce opposition. Critics called a 4% annual issuance "fiat with extra steps" and reminded that the 21 million cap is "Bitcoin's social contract," changing which would set a precedent similar to the Romans debasing their coins. There were even calls not to touch "the only sacred, scarce, and decentralized digital money."
Ben-Sasson countered that stagnation is also a risk, and that logical changes are not the end of Bitcoin, but a way to guarantee its future. He drew an analogy: can scarcity be preserved with a truly low but constant increase in supply? In his opinion, yes. The debate showed that the topic of the BTC cap remains one of the most sensitive for market participants.
Expert Opinion: This debate is not just an academic argument. It reveals a fundamental contradiction between "digital gold" as a store of value and Bitcoin as a working payment network. Ben-Sasson's idea is technically interesting, but its implementation would require a hard fork and consensus, which is unlikely. However, the very fact of its emergence suggests that the community is beginning to think about the network's long-term sustainability beyond 2140.