Ethereum [ETH] Total Supply Can be Known Only Roughly: Vitalik Buterin

As reported yesterday on CoinGape, the issue of ‘unknown supply’ has now escalated. Nevertheless, Vitalik Buterin doesn’t seem too concerned about it. 

The bounty for confirming the supply is having a lot of engagement on Twitter. What’s more surprising is that different sources are revealing different numbers. The total supply of ETH is “close to” a specified number.

Marc-Andre Dumas, a programmer at MakerDao, seems to have found the code that outputs the supply number for Ethereum. He tweeted,

The number is close to etherscan.io, the designated blockchain explorer for Ethereum. Furthermore, different sources like Messari, Coinmetrics, Coingecko, Blockchair and so on are reporting a number close to 112,000,0000.

This has been attracting new criticism on Ethereum. Even the Senior Director of Public Policy at VISA, Andy Yee, tweeted, 

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder confirms the fact that the number is a “rough estimate.” He notes in the replies on Twitter,

Because we roughly know what it is according to the protocol rules, and we know that there’s so many people running different implementations that a bug would get caught? He added in the comments,

Here’s the rules for what the rewards are: https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/blob/48b484c5ac537d1759c9903ce81302c298f03a84/consensus/ethash/consensus.go#L621… And you can run a node to verify that the current chain actually reflects those rules!

The argument and allegation could be derogatory; even meant to incite fear or a vulnerability around Ethereum. Nonetheless, this feature of inaccuracy in supply which even Vitalik says we know only ‘roughly’ might come as a surprise.

How does this new information change your view of Ethereum? Please share your views with us.