So I’m doing some research on this Bitcoin code that apparently predates the first release of Bitcoin v0.01 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=382374.0.
There are many differences in this code compared to v0.01. But I’m mainly interested in the Bitcoin supply as hinted at/outlined in Bitcoin’s first/early draft code.
I tracked two parameters that suggest the supply would have been a TOTAL of 20 trillion Satoshi (2 billion Bitcoin).
or
Could it have been a total of 2 billion Bitcoin units without decimal/sub-Bitcoin Satoshi units due to coding implications?
So I’m here to get a second opinion from an expert!
I hope I can express this well and that my calculations are correct.
“The second biggest coding difference is that the initial block reward is 10000.0000 Bitcoin(?) rather than 50.00000000 Bitcoin(?). This means that the total supply is not 2.1 trillion satoshis (21 million bitcoins), but instead a TOTAL of 20 trillion satoshis. 2 billion). Bitcoin)!
Also check the difference in decimal places here. In Satoshi’s first draft of Bitcoin, he envisioned it having only four decimal places rather than eight. However, the Coinbase reward was much larger, at 10000 Bitcoins per block rather than 50 Bitcoins.
Additionally, halvings are scheduled every 100,000 blocks rather than every 210,000 blocks. The block time goal was also set to 15 minutes instead of 10 minutes. This means that there is a half-life approximately every 34 months, or 2.85 years. “Not every four years.”
The two code sections above seem to be relevant here. But note that the first value is 10000. This section of code in v0.01 is 50*COIN, where COIN is in units of 100 million.
So does this mean that the first draft of Bitcoin will have no decimal places/satoshi units since there will be no “*COIN” or “*CENT” other than the 10000 base reward?
The second line of code with ” 10000 * CENT ” (CENT also = 10000) refers to the number system in units of 10000.0000. But since this is missing from the first code picture, are we effectively having satoshi/decimal units here?
Thank you for your consideration and insight into this code!