Finance Committee on March 19th, 2018

[Jonathan Hamel]

It is in fact $21 million.

[Pierre-Luc Dusseault, NDP, Sherbrooke, QC]

You also said that a certain number of bitcoins were created every year. Who set that number? Could it potentially be changed?

[Jonathan Hamel]

You are right. That number was in bitcoin's initial submission, which laid out the particularities and attributes of bitcoin under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto. We don't know who he is. It may also be a group.

This decision could be changed, but the consensus required to change that attribute is relatively improbable, since the vast majority of players in the bitcoin world behave in an economically rational manner. It would be irrational to devalue their assets. For example, by wanting to double the total quantity of bitcoins, bitcoin owners would devalue their currency for no reason. In fact, the real strength—

[Pierre-Luc Dusseault, NDP, Sherbrooke, QC]

Would there be a vote? How would it work?

[Jonathan Hamel]

At bitcoin, users vote. It's a false belief to think that minors control bitcoin. The actual people who control bitcoin are users, who vote, in a way, by choosing the version they use. To change that attribute, what is called a fork would have to be done, which means going to another version that would be something different from bitcoin. So it would no longer be bitcoin, and the majority of users would have to be convinced to use that version, so it is very unlikely.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

We'll have to leave it at that. This has been a very interesting discussion on both fronts.

Thank you, Mr. Mirkhan.

Thank you, Mr. Hamel.

We have seven minutes and 30 seconds to get to a vote, so the meeting is adjourned.

Thank you very much.