"This poses obvious problems, however. Prominent among them is the discussion on what to call 1 billion Bitcoin, which symbol color to use for it, and when wallet clients should switch to it by default.
To combat this, this document proposes a controversial change: making Bitcoin's monetary supply finite."
For those confused, here's a great summary explanation from user lifeboatz on Reddit (do read the BIP though, it's funny):
"""
Since these BIPs can be confusing, I'll explain. The way the block reward halving is implemented, the reward is calculated by taking 50 and bit-shifting it to the right by a certain number, which is the block number (height) divided by 210000.
So at Block 210000, the bit shift is 1, effectively dividing the block reward by 2, to 25.
At Block 420000, the bit shift is 2, effectively dividing the block reward by 4, to 12.5.
This works great up to 63. But since there's no specification in C++ as to what to do if you take a 64-bit number and shift it 64 bits, it's undefined.
And what happens on many C++ compilers is that they just pass that decision on to the hardware to define it. And in the case of the most popular PC and server equipment, what the hardware does is it doesn't even look at the high order bits of the shifting amount.... so 64 = 0, 65 = 1, 66 = 2, etc.
This means that at block number 210000*64, the block reward is currently programmed to be 50 again. Oops.
This is an urgent situation that should be addressed within the next 200 years! If miners are alive who could benefit from this, they may not want to change it.
"""
11 comments
[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 38.1 ms ] threadTo combat this, this document proposes a controversial change: making Bitcoin's monetary supply finite."
Haha April fools! ... I hope?
https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/3842
""" Since these BIPs can be confusing, I'll explain. The way the block reward halving is implemented, the reward is calculated by taking 50 and bit-shifting it to the right by a certain number, which is the block number (height) divided by 210000.
So at Block 210000, the bit shift is 1, effectively dividing the block reward by 2, to 25.
At Block 420000, the bit shift is 2, effectively dividing the block reward by 4, to 12.5.
This works great up to 63. But since there's no specification in C++ as to what to do if you take a 64-bit number and shift it 64 bits, it's undefined.
And what happens on many C++ compilers is that they just pass that decision on to the hardware to define it. And in the case of the most popular PC and server equipment, what the hardware does is it doesn't even look at the high order bits of the shifting amount.... so 64 = 0, 65 = 1, 66 = 2, etc.
This means that at block number 210000*64, the block reward is currently programmed to be 50 again. Oops.
This is an urgent situation that should be addressed within the next 200 years! If miners are alive who could benefit from this, they may not want to change it. """
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/21ynmv/bitcoin_shou...