Etherum (ETH/USD) creator Vitalik Buterin proposes a cap at 120 million or exactly, twice the amount of Ether sold in its original sale in 2014.
“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,” Buterin wrote in an Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) on April 1st.
In his EIP, Buterin said the Ether cap could ensure the platform’s economic stability. He’s confident that no economic policy can be created until 120 million tokens have been distributed.
“I recommend setting MAX_SUPPLY = 120,204,432, or exactly 2x the amount of ETH sold in the original ether sale,” Buterin said.
There are currently 98 million ETH in circulation. His second choice, taking into account any delay in implementation of his EIP, is as follows:
“If for some reason this EIP is adopted at a point where it is too late to set a max cap at 120 million, it is also possible to set a higher max cap. I would recommend 144,052,828 ETH, or exactly 2x the total amount released in the genesis block including both the sale and premines.”
He suggested that implementation could occur during the next Ethereum hard fork, likely to be the first phase of the Casper update.