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After reading the white paper of Satoshi Nakamoto. The white paper does not mention anything about a limit of money supply. I think I have read somewhere mentioned the name, but unfortunately I cannot remember it. If I look in the main resources available online (Wikipedia, bitcoin.org, ..) they all mention Satoshi Nakamoto as the one who added this feature. If Satoshi was not the one to add this feature, I think it is very important that we know who came up with this, and why the bitcoin dev community at the moment decided to adopt it.

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  • Shady? How is having any limit at all, no matter its numerical value, any more shady than the status quo with normal currencies?
    – Tyler
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 5:03
  • @Tyler If the limit were imposed secretly, that would be shady.
    – Nick ODell
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 17:07
  • @Nick, you mean like the dollar? (Referring to the process by which the limit is decided, at least.) :)
    – Tyler
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 17:11

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This is the announcement of Bitcoin:

http://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2009-January/014994.html

Total circulation will be 21,000,000 coins. It'll be distributed to network nodes when they make blocks, with the amount cut in half every 4 years.

first 4 years: 10,500,000 coins
next 4 years: 5,250,000 coins
next 4 years: 2,625,000 coins
next 4 years: 1,312,500 coins etc...

It was part of it from the beginning, and it definitely wasn't secret.

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    In other words, it was part of Bitcoin from the very beginning. At first, nobody had any reason, or any authority, to change it. Now, it's well baked into the protocol such that changing it would severely undermine confidence in the system.
    – David Schwartz
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 9:55
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    Furthermore, many, many parts of the design of the actual system are not in the paper. The paper explains how it is possible to build a digital currency out of a proof-of-work blockchain. It doesn't specify the entire system.
    – Pieter Wuille
    Commented Oct 30, 2016 at 22:26
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It was decided by the creator of Bitcoin, the anonymous Satoshi Nakamoto.To know more you can watch Bitcoin the end of money as we know it.

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