The total amount of bitcoin is hardcoded to be less than 21 million BTC . . .
FTFY
-snip-
I was wondering when you would show up to correct all those wrong answers
Just having some fun. Only a few of the answers were truly wrong, such as "it would be up to the miners to prevent the new fork from developing" and "how many there are still out there to be mined I am not sure a solid answer can be given on that".
20999999.9769 is so close to 21 million, that I don't really consider it to be "wrong", although I do find it a bit annoying when people say "exactly 21 million". Better answers are:
- nearly 21 million
- almost 21 million
- approximately 21 million
- less than 21 million
- no more than 21 million
- practically 21 million
- etc.
to "defend" my own post:
The hardcoded limit is defined [1] as exactly 21 million in MAX_MONEY.
Quote
The total amount of bitcoin is hardcoded to be 21 million BTC at max.
The hardcoded limit is defined [1] as exactly 21 million in MAX_MONEY.
Touché!
MAX_MONEY is defined as:
21000000 * COIN
and COIN is defined as:
100000000
This isn't used to determine how much will be created, but rather to check to see if any errors have occurred (if a transaction or a fee is larger than MAX_MONEY, then it can't possibly be valid). Given the hardcoded validation routine, your answer is correct.
While -due to the nature of the halfing- this might never be reached, its still the limit. Thus my wording of "almost" 21 million in the next sentence.
It seems odd to say something "is the limit" if it is higher than the maximum possible value. It's a bit like saying that the limit of human lifespan is 10,000 years, just because I define MAX_LIFESPAN as 10,000 in some program. And then saying:
"While -due the nature of actual human life- this might never be reached, it is still the limit."