This is an opinion editorial by Mickey Koss, a West Point graduate with a degree in economics. He spent four years in the infantry before transitioning to the Finance Corps.
While discussing the blind spots of Bitcoin with another Bitcoin Magazine contributor, we agreed that the lack of delineation between Bitcoin the asset, protocol and network may be one of the most salient issues holding back greater adoption.
The blind spot I want to address involves the 21-million hardcap meme, which is, in fact, a rounding error. I get it; it’s catchy and useful, like most memes are, but in a way, I think it’s actually holding Bitcoin back.
The Bitcoin network enforces the bitcoin standard on the bitcoin asset. The hard cap is actually 20,999,999.9769 bitcoin, with the 21 million being the limit in a math equation, not the maximum itself. Notice all the decimal points? As most of you are aware, the satoshi (sat) is the smallest denomination of bitcoin at .00000001 BTC.
If you think about it, though, if bitcoin is divisible and the satoshi is not, is the Bitcoin network not enforcing a satoshi hardcap? The Bitcoin protocol does not deal in fractions — only whole satoshi units. If you view it through that divisibility lens, it’s always been satoshis.
The impact of this particular blind spot I see is twofold. First, it’s allowing shitcoiners to leverage unit bias, dissuading potential adopters from even attempting to jump on the life raft. Second, it’s prolonging the transition from a speculative store of value to a unit of account in the Bitcoin network’s slow march towards global reserve currency.
Bitcoin Unit Bias Is Fueling Shitcoin Manias
20,999,999.9769 BTC, or 2,099,999,997,690,000 satoshis. The 21-million hard cap is good for memes, good for advertising. It’s concise and mostly accurate.
The hard truth, though, is that there just isn’t enough bitcoin to go around. A common saying is that the population of millionaires on Earth outnumbers the number of…
