Post
Topic
Board Altcoin Discussion
Re: Who decides the total number of coins?
by
michaelwang33
on 09/08/2014, 16:48:18 UTC
So as everyone keeps coming up with these new coins and new algorithms, how do they decide how many total coins to offer? I know LTC is exactly 4X as many BTC. Can anyone shed any light on this, or is it completely random and up to each individual coin maker? What are the possible positive and negative impacts on a somewhat random, finiate amount of coins?

It's completely arbitrary. Choose whatever you like as long as there is a clear and static cap.

was arbitratry for bitcoin also? i remember 21M come up from a math equation or some other calculation
It is the amount that is programmed into the protocol of the coin. It is essentially an arbitrary number that is known to everyone in advance before they start mining or trading so market participants can have some idea as to the value of each coin.