James O’Beirne, a Bitcoin Core developer, has raised concerns about the state of Bitcoin’s security budget and how its ongoing erosion might jeopardize what he refers to as ‘property rights.’ O’Beirne emphasized that there is little time to address this issue.
Bitcoin Core Developer James O’Beirne Warns About Possible Erosion of Bitcoin ‘Property Rights’ as Security Budget Dwindles
James O’Beirne, a Bitcoin Core developer, has voiced his worries about the possible future of the prime cryptocurrency given the continuous reduction of bitcoin’s security budget.
On the Supply Shock podcast, O’Beirne stated that as the network evolves and the total income shifts, the people in charge of bitcoin might be tempted to change some of its fundamental policy pillars.
When asked about the relevance of bitcoin’s security budget for the future, he stated:
I think it’s a huge issue because the fundamental, the thing that should make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up if someone mentions in the context of Bitcoin is somehow undermining the property rights.
O’Beirne detailed that these changes might include introducing tail emissions and changing bitcoin’s supply schedule, stressing that both would undermine the premise of Bitcoin.
The developer alerted that these changes might be considered as miners suffer the decline in the mining subsidy and low onchain fees, combined with stagnating prices. He explained that the situation might start to get “very uncomfortable.”
Finally, he assessed that there was not much time to tackle this issue, evaluating that there were only two halvings before a relevant reduction of the mining subsidy. “I do think it’s a question people have to start grappling with,” O’Beirne concluded.
O’Beirne’s concerns echo what Nikita Zhavoronkov, lead developer of the Blockhair block explorer, has been warning about since last year.
In May, Zhavoronkov predicted that one of three changes would solve this problem, encompassing significant changes to the asset’s fundamentals: developing an initiative to scale Bitcoin onchain, removing the 21 million BTC issuance limit and modifying the issuance algorithm, or migrating the Bitcoin consensus system from proof-of-work to other alternatives.
