Vitalik Buterin Proposes 120M Ether Cap for a Sustainable Future

No one is absolutely certain if they should take anyone else seriously on April 1. Suspicion is the first reaction to announcements made by companies and high-profile individuals, even if they appear to be serious. A case in point is Vitalik Buterin, who opened a discussion on Sunday on Ethereum’s GitHub repository to call for a hard limit of 120 million Ether in the network, much like how Bitcoin is capped at 21 million units.

“In order to ensure the economic sustainability of the platform under the widest possible variety of circumstances, and in light of the fact that issuing new coins to proof of work miners is no longer an effective way of promoting an egalitarian coin distribution or any other significant policy goal, I propose that we agree on a hard cap for the total quantity of ETH,” hewrote.

Some users argued the move was a logical one since Ethereum’s network would no longer have a proof of work model - something Buterin emphasized in his statement.

The founder of Ethereum has been adamant in his support for a proof of stake model. Theoretically, this would make it entirely unnecessary to have an inflationary model for Ethereum.

Others, however, took notice of the date on which Buterin made the announcement and called it an April Fools prank.

Some users did not approve of a hard cap, one even hoping that this was a diversion in the spirit of the day.

Whatever anyone says, the decision has been taken. At least this is what Buterin made clear regarding the future releases of Ethereum’s software.

The newer version of the cryptocurrency will combine proof of work with proof of stake and begin a battle against ASICs, which Ethereum’s developers perceive as a centralizing threat to the network.

What might have sounded like an April Fools joke appears to be a legitimate proposal that might make more sense considering the direction in which Buterin wishes to take Ethereum.