StarkWare CEO suggests 4% annual Bitcoin inflation to replace 21M cap

StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson argued that Bitcoin private keys get lost over time, meaning the amount of usable Bitcoin will diminish. Many disagree.

The debate over whether Bitcoin's fixed supply cap should be lifted has resurfaced after StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson suggested Tuesday that it should replaced with a 4% annual issuance rate.

In a post to X on Tuesday, Ben-Sasson said the current 21 million cap “doesn't make sense” because private keys are lost over time and “as time goes to infinity, all keys will be lost.”

Crypto wallet hardware provider Ledger estimated in November that up to 4 million Bitcoin had been burned or permanently lost. Ben-Sasson said he still supports a hard upper bound on Bitcoin's supply, and that a 4% annual inflation rate roughly tracks the growth of the human population.

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