Bitcoin Maximum supply can be increased?

[raisulmushfeq]

Currently we are seeing a lot of bitcoin forks and attempt for hard forks. Those forks are coming with some new features or lifting some limits of bitcoin (by their claim). So my thought here is, can bitcoin maximum supply of 21 million be raised with hard fork with the support from majority of mining community? How may that affect the bitcoin economy?

[BrewMaster]

not the "majority of mining community" but the "majority".

it is not just the miners that get to decide. you guessed the first part correctly, anything can change technically speaking. so the 21 million limit can also be changed. but the question is will everyone, or better said "overwhelming majority" agree with that change?

this majority is obviously starting with the miners since they are doing the work (it is PoW after all) but then it is all the users. if they remain on the main chain not the forked on, the price of the forked one will crash and never rise (example: bitcoin cash). and that makes it an altcoin.

[OmegaStarScream]

Anything on the source code can be changed. The price is based on supply and demand. If the supply is unlimited or too much then the price will logically be low but at this stage, I see no reason on why we should increase the supply as we have a few millions of bitcoins mined and bitcoin can be divided.

[Dummsaus]

not the "majority of mining community" but the "majority".

it is not just the miners that get to decide. you guessed the first part correctly, anything can change technically speaking. so the 21 million limit can also be changed. but the question is will everyone, or better said "overwhelming majority" agree with that change?

this majority is obviously starting with the miners since they are doing the work (it is PoW after all) but then it is all the users. if they remain on the main chain not the forked on, the price of the forked one will crash and never rise (example: bitcoin cash). and that makes it an altcoin.

I have never read such much nonsense in one post.
Applause.

The Bitcoin maximum is hard wired to its algorithm, which is used since its beginning and won't change. Point.

[Dummsaus]

Anything on the source code can be changed. The price is based on supply and demand. If the supply is unlimited or too much then the price will logically be low but at this stage, I see no reason on why we should increase the supply as we have a few millions of bitcoins mined and bitcoin can be divided.

What kind of a answer is this?
Of course Bitcoin is software and it could literally be changed into a worldclass multiplayer Galaga game.
But that is not the question, the Bitcoin algorithm is what those Bitcoin users agree in,
also the Blockchain, etc.

And you can't change a part of it in the working system just like that, without being the Most Wanted Idiot Number One.

[eance]

IMO soon ppl will deal on satoshis, that will solve this question

[jseverson]

It could be. Bitcoin is open source so the code can be reviewed or altered by anyone. Changing the maximum supply should be very possible. Why would you want to increase the total supply though? That's only going to hurt Bitcoin's value. It would make more sense to make smaller dividends than Satoshis, and I don't even think that would be necessary anytime soon given the current demand. We're much better off leaving the maximum supply the way it is to keep Bitcoin a deflationary currency. This way, should we ever reach mass adoption, 1 Bitcoin could easily be worth millions of dollars.

[n4poleon]

Two answers, yes you can but you can't call it bitcoin anymore. Otherwise, no you can't and that is absolute. It is agreed from the beginning. By the way, this is a public information.You should be aware of this before you post.

[Mysterious01]

Two answers, yes you can but you can't call it bitcoin anymore. Otherwise, no you can't and that is absolute. It is agreed from the beginning. By the way, this is a public information.You should be aware of this before you post.

Nice information, in the first place I am not aware of it but thanks to your informative reply I learned additional information.
I will dig more about bitcoin so I will be aware already on what will happen.

[RealKhan]

Of course like many pointed out things, it might not be necessary. Every Bitcoin is divided in one hundred million units if I'm right. That should keep everything all right for now.  Since there is no limit on how small size a Bitcoin can be divided to. A single coin could be made enough to cover the whole earth if all the 21 million coins are lost.

[shursight]

We have not even reached the maximum supply, there are about 16 millions and a half of bitcoins in circulation, and the 21 million supply will be mined in 2100 at least.
So why are you worried about this? we are probably not even going to be alive by that year, because there are more than 83 years left. Anyway, they can not be changed, because it was created only to have a max supply of 21 million of bitcoins.

[Creepings]

We have not even reached the maximum supply, there are about 16 millions and a half of bitcoins in circulation, and the 21 million supply will be mined in 2100 at least.
So why are you worried about this? we are probably not even going to be alive by that year, because there are more than 83 years left. Anyway, they can not be changed, because it was created only to have a max supply of 21 million of bitcoins.

Sadly, the bitcoin is circulation is not really 16 million but less than that. We all know that it may happen when voted by the miners but I don't think they will be just accepting this proposal that easy. We all know that the higher the supply, the lower the price. So when the supply increased, the price will obviously decrease.

[Yakamoto]

Currently we are seeing a lot of bitcoin forks and attempt for hard forks. Those forks are coming with some new features or lifting some limits of bitcoin (by their claim). So my thought here is, can bitcoin maximum supply of 21 million be raised with hard fork with the support from majority of mining community? How may that affect the bitcoin economy?

Well it can be changed with a hard fork, that much is obvious, and people have likely done something along those lines already, with their own hard forks that no-one uses and just sit there, doing nothing at all. Now, does that mean that we have to recognize these chains? No, of course not, that's why we're all still on the same blockchain and we still have a total of 21m Bitcoins. Now if the community decides as a whole (or as a very significant majority) decide to increase the cap, then they can make a fork, but it would likely wreck the price and that would destabilize the entirety of the network, potentially resulting in something along the lines of investor exodus. I don't know.

[rodskee]

not the "majority of mining community" but the "majority".

it is not just the miners that get to decide. you guessed the first part correctly, anything can change technically speaking. so the 21 million limit can also be changed. but the question is will everyone, or better said "overwhelming majority" agree with that change?

this majority is obviously starting with the miners since they are doing the work (it is PoW after all) but then it is all the users. if they remain on the main chain not the forked on, the price of the forked one will crash and never rise (example: bitcoin cash). and that makes it an altcoin.

i agree with you mate not only the miner community the decision came from majority vote of bitcoin user's about this coming fork, but i think there's nothing to change about the system work for now in bitcoin i believe the decsion in this incoming fork still no changing and bitcoin strong stand in their own foot as strong first digital decentralized crypto currency, but then again we will wait the decision and what matter's the result of decisoin i will accept and respect.

[illinest]

Currently we are seeing a lot of bitcoin forks and attempt for hard forks. Those forks are coming with some new features or lifting some limits of bitcoin (by their claim). So my thought here is, can bitcoin maximum supply of 21 million be raised with hard fork with the support from majority of mining community? How may that affect the bitcoin economy?

This is the ultimate question about hard forks and whether a hard fork of Bitcoin can ever be considered "Bitcoin." Soft forks can add rules to the protocol, meaning that soft forks can't introduce increased supply beyond 21 million coins. There are ways to add sidechains to the protocol with soft forks, and this does add new "currencies" that interact with the protocol, but they are not BTC and your node cannot be forced to accept them as BTC.

Hard forks, on the other hand, allow any change imaginable to the protocol's consensus rules: increased supply, decreased block time, transaction/contract censorship, etc. This is why some people are against hard forks in general, and prefer to find backward compatible solutions to protocol limitations.

[timikulit]

Two answers, yes you can but you can't call it bitcoin anymore. Otherwise, no you can't and that is absolute. It is agreed from the beginning. By the way, this is a public information.You should be aware of this before you post.

This is the most correct answer here. Thank you for clearing out.