Dutch agile coach and founder of AardRock whose questions on the P2P Research mailing list prompted Satoshi Nakamoto to first publicly state Bitcoin's fixed supply of 21,000,000 coins.
Martien van Steenbergen is a Dutch agile and lean trainer, coach, and founder of AardRock, a company focused on organizational transformation, disruptive innovation, and leadership. He has been active in the P2P research community and has an interest in alternative currency systems.
Interaction with Satoshi: On February 12, 2009, van Steenbergen responded to Satoshi Nakamoto’s announcement of Bitcoin on the P2P Research mailing list with two key technical questions: whether Bitcoin resembled David Chaum’s anonymous digital money system, and whether Bitcoin had a limited money supply or created money at the moment of transaction.
Satoshi replied the same day with one of his most significant early statements: “There is a limited supply of money. Circulation will be 21,000,000 coins. Transactions only transfer ownership.” This was the first time Satoshi publicly stated the 21 million coin limit outside the Bitcoin source code.
In a follow-up exchange on February 13, van Steenbergen asked about Ripple, protocol specifications, and whether Bitcoin could support self-organizing monetary models. Satoshi responded by describing Bitcoin as “a foundation and first step” for programmable P2P social currencies, and discussed Bitcoin’s relationship to Pekunio and reputation-based systems.
Significance: Van Steenbergen’s direct question about money supply elicited one of Satoshi’s most frequently quoted statements about Bitcoin’s fundamental design. His questions helped draw out important early explanations of Bitcoin’s monetary policy and vision for the future of programmable currencies.
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Satoshi explains Bitcoin's fixed supply of 21,000,000 coins and how it differs from David Chaum's system, in response to Martien van Steenbergen's questions on the P2P Research mailing list.