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BlackRock has come under fire for a new video that suggests Bitcoin's supply could "be changed."
The video, which highlights Bitcoin’s fundamentals to support BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) ETF, was posted on the asset manager's website and shared widely across social media. Even MicroStrategy's Michael Saylor drew attention to it, tweeting, "BlackRock explains #Bitcoin."
BlackRock explains #Bitcoinpic.twitter.com/X2fPl8tL2s
— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) December 17, 2024
The video explores the history of money and Bitcoin's key features, including its capped supply of 21 million tokens. However, while emphasizing the benefits of this fixed supply, the video includes a brief disclaimer: “There is no guarantee Bitcoin’s 21 million supply cap will not be changed.”
The statement triggered flak from the Bitcoin communtiy, who regard the immutable supply cap as a core principle safeguarding Bitcoin's identity as "hard money."
Even Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko called out the video, stating, “This is the problem with tradfi. They see crypto as an investment into a thing external to them."
"What blackrock and saylor needs to commit to is that their own full nodes will always guarantees 21m supply and they will only call the fork that their full nodes follow Bitcoin. They need to become the decentralized network, not be investors of it," he added.
This is the problem with tradfi. They see crypto as an investment into a thing external to them. What blackrock and saylor needs to commit to is that their own full nodes will always guarantees 21m supply and they will only call the fork that their full nodes follow Bitcoin.… https://t.co/h4oHMQyse7
— toly 🇺🇸 (@aeyakovenko) December 19, 2024
Although technically possible, altering Bitcoin's supply cap would require consensus among a majority of miners.
Blockstream CEO Adam Back came to the defence of BlackRock, tweetiong, "Obviously their lawyers made them write that as they sell investment products and they don't have control."
"It's just legal fine print saying blackrock can't guarantee that – because if the community tried to do it, there's nothing they could do about it. ofc it's not going to happen from the community either, so it's just some cautious legal coverage,"he added.
it's just legal fine print saying blackrock can't guarantee that -- because if the community tried to do it, there's nothing they could do about it. ofc it's not going to happen from the community either, so it's just some cautious legal coverage.
— Adam Back (@adam3us) December 19, 2024
BlackRock's controversial video isn't the first time the asset manager has been regarded to be seen out of touch with the industry. In June 2023, its ETF filing mentioned the possibility of changes to Bitcoin's code, including the supply limit. The filing stated “a hard fork could change the source code to the Bitcoin network, including the 21 million Bitcoin supply cap.”
Developer Peter Todd, who was hinted at being Satoshi Nakamoto in a recent HBO documentary, said a hard for was technically possible but only " if the community agrees to change the 21 million limit they can."
I wrote an entire article on tail emission: https://t.co/ChNUpifYUo
— Peter Todd (@peterktodd) December 19, 2024
Obviously, if the community agrees to change the 21 million limit they can.
Blockhead
