BlackRock's BTC explanatory video sparked controversy! Does it imply a change in the 21 million supply limit, possibly triggering a hard fork increase?

Asset management company BlackRock released a 3-minute BTC introduction video on 12/18, which mentioned one of the key cores of BTC, that is, the fixed supply of 21 million. However, a sentence in the video’s subtitles has sparked widespread discussion in the BTC community: “There is no guarantee that the 21 million supply of BTC will not change.” This sentence has made BTC supporters uneasy, even suspecting whether BlackRock is paving the way for future possible Hard Fork or modification of BTC protocol.

Concerns and Responses in the BTC Community

After the release of the video, BTC supporters also responded one after another. Some asked if BlackRock is trying to implement a ‘Hard Fork’ to increase the supply of BTC, while others felt that this was ‘very strange’ and wondered if BlackRock wanted to influence the BTC protocol. As of now, Dune data shows that BlackRock has already managed over 524,000 BTC through its own BTC spot ETF, with a market value of approximately 53 billion US dollars.

The supply limit is the core value of Bitcoin, which has sparked historic controversies

The fixed supply of BTC is one of the core concepts of BTC and a belief held by many BTC enthusiasts.

Meaning of fixed supply: BTC will not depreciate like national fiat currencies due to unlimited printing and is considered a “digital gold” that is resistant to inflation.

Changing the upper limit risk: Changing the supply could directly undermine the core value of BTC, leading to a collapse of trust.

This reminds people of the “BTC block size war” from 2015 to 2017, when the two factions fiercely debated over block capacity and protocol control. In the end, the small block faction won, and the core features of BTC were preserved. This dispute ultimately led to the birth of Bitcoin Cash (BCH), a hard fork from the faction that supported larger blocks.

(Speed Reading Vitalik | Reflection on the BTC Block Size War: The Story of Two Perspectives)

Whether to change the upper limit, security budget issues emerge

However, some BTC supporters also believe that it may be necessary to increase the supply in the future to address the so-called ‘security budget crisis’. For BTC miners, current income consists of two parts, namely ‘BTC generated per block’ and ‘transaction fees’.

However, due to the halving mechanism every four years, BTC’s block rewards will decrease, thereby reducing miners’ income. Some developers are concerned that in the future, relying solely on transaction fees may not be enough to cover the operating costs of miners, which will inevitably affect the network security of BTC.

BTC developer Nikita Zhavoronkov stated earlier this year: ‘There is little possibility of significantly increasing transaction fee revenue, so the 1MB block limit must be changed.’ However, Jameson Lopp, CTO of BTC security asset management company Casa, believes that concerns about security budgets are currently only hypothetical and there is no actual evidence to support this claim. Lopp suggests that BTC global adoption should continue to expand to alleviate this issue.

BlackRock’s video whether hides intentions

Whether the sentence in the BlackRock video is just a simple reminder or an intentional implication, it is still uncertain. But this statement has made the BTC community start to reflect on how to uphold the core value of BTC protocol.

This article Bel BTC explanation video caused controversy! Does it imply a change in the 21 million supply limit, fearing a Hard Fork increment first appeared in Chain News ABMedia.