- the difference between Doge and Bitcoin is that there isn't a cap to the total number of Dogecoins created,
whereas Bitcoin will only ever have a max of 21m coins (unless the protocol changes).
Its nothing to do with the protocol - if it were then there may be some guarantees that this 21m cap will be concrete.
No, its simply an arbitrary value ( actually - its an 'operand') in the code that can be changed at any time without having any effect on previous, existing or future transactions.
So, in otherwords, where most 'protocol' changes would, at the very least, require a "hard fork", the change in the cap to 22M or 42M or infinite cap could be made in the next minor version release.
I dont know where people who are supposed to understand these things get the idea of a hard limit to bitcoin. Its only a 'guide' or estimate. It can change once enough people want it.
Its just one line of code!!
If someone was to change this "one line of code" if definitely would be considered a "hard fork", regardless of consensus from the core devs. You need 50% plus 1 among the miners to decide to follow. Minor version releases are minor because they don't contain any controversial changes, not because of the amount of work or line changes that were made.