230 Million: Ethereum Classic Community Backs Limit on Total Tokens

The community of companies and startups supporting the ethereum classic blockchain is planning to put a cap on the total amount of tokens that will ever be created by the protocol.

In a new blog post released today, signatories from the network's development, infrastructure and investment ecosystem threw their support behind a plan to upgrade the network in the coming months. Notable signatories include startup IOHK, which is led by former ethereum CEO Charles Hoskinson, Digital Currency Group, and major mining pools including F2Pool.

The plan for the "monetary policy" envisions a limit being implemented, with an eye to start releasing software clients this summer.

The blog post explains:

"The new monetary policy sets a limit for the total [classic ether (ETC)] issuance. The block reward will be reduced by 20% at block number 5,000,000, and another 20% every 5,000,000 blocks thereafter. Uncle block rewards will also be reduced. Due to variations in the reward rate of ETC, we anticipate the total supply to be approximately 210 million ETC, not to exceed 230 million ETC."

Activation of the upgrade could come as early as the fall, and should the upgrade be adopted by network supporters, the block reward decline will begin in December.

If enacted, the development would mark a significant milestone for the project, which arose from a split in the ethereum community last year.

Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group.

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