Co-founder and CEO of StarkWare Eli Ben-Sasson proposed to change the Bitcoin emission model, replacing the fixed limit of 21 million coins for annual issuance of new BTC at ~4%. In his opinion, the current model does not account for the inevitable loss of private keys: Ledger experts estimate the volume of irrevocably lost bitcoins at 4 million, and "on the infinite horizon" all the keys will be lost. Ben-Sasson argued that 4% inflation is roughly equal to the rate of growth of the world’s population.

The community’s response has been mixed. Opponents recalled that the limit of 21 million BTC is a fundamental property of Bitcoin and the basis for the concept of "digital gold." Critics fear that any change to the protocol will open the door for further revisions, undermining trust in the asset. Ben-Sasson argued that the scarcity would persist at a fixed rate of inflation, and the division into satoshi did not solve the problem of loss of access.

As a compromise, Zcash founder Bryce Wilcox has proposed the Network Sustainability Mechanism: users voluntarily burn coins and the equivalent amount is returned to circulation through miner awards within 4 years - without increasing the maximum offer. Earlier, Michael Sealor emphasized that Bitcoin should not change at the protocol level.