Who added the 21 million limit to Bitcoin?

After reading the white paper of Satoshi Nakamoto. The white paper does not mention anything about a limit of money supply. I think I have read somewhere mentioned the name, but unfortunately I cannot remember it. If I look in the main resources available online (Wikipedia, bitcoin.org, ..) they all mention Satoshi Nakamoto as the one who added this feature. If Satoshi was not the one to add this feature, I think it is very important that we know who came up with this, and why the bitcoin dev community at the moment decided to adopt it.

user42048

Posted 2016-10-08T16:28:14.130

Reputation: 41

Shady? How is having any limit at all, no matter its numerical value, any more shady than the status quo with normal currencies? – Tyler – 2016-10-09T05:03:54.000

@Tyler If the limit were imposed secretly, that would be shady. – Nick ODell – 2016-10-09T17:07:47.383

@Nick, you mean like the dollar? (Referring to the process by which the limit is decided, at least.) :) – Tyler – 2016-10-09T17:11:20.390

Answers

This is the announcement of Bitcoin:

http://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2009-January/014994.html

Total circulation will be 21,000,000 coins. It'll be distributed to network nodes when they make blocks, with the amount cut in half every 4 years.

first 4 years: 10,500,000 coins
next 4 years: 5,250,000 coins
next 4 years: 2,625,000 coins
next 4 years: 1,312,500 coins etc...

It was part of it from the beginning, and it definitely wasn't secret.

Nick ODell

Posted 2016-10-08T16:28:14.130

Reputation: 26 536

2In other words, it was part of Bitcoin from the very beginning. At first, nobody had any reason, or any authority, to change it. Now, it's well baked into the protocol such that changing it would severely undermine confidence in the system. – David Schwartz – 2016-10-09T09:55:08.970

Furthermore, many, many parts of the design of the actual system are not in the paper. The paper explains how it is possible to build a digital currency out of a proof-of-work blockchain. It doesn't specify the entire system. – Pieter Wuille – 2016-10-30T22:26:55.480

It was decided by the creator of Bitcoin, the anonymous Satoshi Nakamoto.To know more you can watch Bitcoin the end of money as we know it.

NeoR

Posted 2016-10-08T16:28:14.130

Reputation: 101