StarkWare CEO questions Bitcoin’s 21 million supply cap, proposes 4% annual issuance

StarkWare co-founder and CEO Eli Ben-Sasson renewed debate over Bitcoin’s monetary policy by arguing that the network’s 21 million supply cap should be reconsidered because lost private keys steadily reduce the amount of usable BTC. He proposed a hard issuance rule of up to 4% a year, saying a predictable inflation rate could preserve scarcity while offsetting coins that become permanently inaccessible. Chainalysis estimated in 2017 that 2.78 million to 3.79 million BTC were already unrecoverable, and Ben-Sasson argued that a capped inflation rate would also help sustain miner rewards after Bitcoin stops issuing new coins in 2140. Roughly 95.5% of Bitcoin’s total supply has already been minted. The idea drew quick resistance from Bitcoin supporters, who said the hard cap remains central to Bitcoin’s value proposition and argued that lost coins reinforce scarcity rather than weaken it. The debate also revived concerns about Bitcoin’s long-term security budget as transaction fees sit near 2019 lows, raising the question of whether fees alone can secure the network once block rewards disappear. Zcash creator Zooko Wilcox pointed instead to Shielded Labs’ Network Sustainability Mechanism, which would let holders voluntarily burn ZEC and have those coins later re-created as miner rewards without increasing Zcash’s 21 million cap. The proposal would burn 60% of transaction fees, or about 210 ZEC a year, though Ben-Sasson argued that amount would not meaningfully fund miners. The discussion also touched on Monero’s 2022 move to adopt a permanent tail emission of 0.6 XMR per block, even as Bitcoin developers have repeatedly rejected similar inflationary changes.