StarkWare CEO: Proposes Replacing Bitcoin's 21 Million Cap with 4% Annual Inflation Rate

Odaily reports that StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson has proposed replacing Bitcoin's 21 million hard cap with a 4% annual issuance rate. He argues that the current hard cap is "unreasonable" because private keys are lost over time, stating, "As time approaches infinity, all private keys will be lost." Ledger estimates that approximately 4 million Bitcoins have already been permanently lost. Ben-Sasson stated that a 4% annual issuance rate roughly aligns with the global population growth rate. This proposal has sparked opposition from the community, with critics arguing that the fixed cap is a core value of Bitcoin, and that Bitcoin is divisible into 2.1 quadrillion satoshi units, which is sufficient to address the decline in available supply.