Bitcoin Supply to See “Synchronized Audit" as Vitalik Buterin Agrees to Check Ethereum Supply

The mystery surrounding Ethereum’s total ether supply may soon be clarified, as the blockchain’s creator, Vitalik Buterin, recently agreed to help orchestrate a coordinated audit of the total ether supply.

Buterin agreed to the challenge during a recent appearance on the What Bitcoin Did podcast, in which he spoke about Ethereum’s “supply gate” with the show’s host Peter McCormack and Samson Mow, Chief Strategy Officer at Blockstream.

Although Buterin has yet to formalize any type of coordinated supply audit, many Bitcoin users with full nodes will be conducting what Mow is describing as the “largest synchronized audit” of the bitcoin supply on September 23rd.

Ethereum’s Unknown Supply Sparks Calls for a Full Node Audit

As the BTC Times reported earlier this month, questions regarding the auditability of the ether supply ignited calls for verification of the total supply (known as #SupplyGate), which varies depending on which block explorer is looked at.

Marc-André Sumas, a developer at MakerDAO, even ran a script to audit the supply, which provided a number different from that seen on popular Ethereum explorer Etherscan. 

To help shed light on the “supply gate” controversy, Buterin took to the What Bitcoin Did podcast earlier this month to debate Mow, after explaining that a supply cap prevents the network from having a “guaranteed level of blockchain security.” 

At one point during the episode, Mow threw down the gauntlet, proposing that Bitcoin and Ethereum full nodes both audit the respective networks’ supplies at a designated block height or point in time.

Buterin agreed to this proposal but has yet to offer any updates on when he and other full nodes plan to check the supply.

Bitcoin to Undergo “Largest Synchronized Audit” of Supply on September 23rd

Earlier today, Mow explained that multiple Bitcoin full nodes will be auditing the total supply on September 23rd, once block 650,000 is reached.

He further added that he anticipates this to be the “largest synchronized audit of the Bitcoin monetary supply” that has even been undertaken.

“Bitcoin users will #RunTheNumbers at block 650,000 (Sept 23). Etheruem [sic] users can pick a block (or time) ideally close to that… I expect this will be the largest synchronized audit of the Bitcoin monetary supply, from all types of nodes around the world.”

The full nodes will likely use the RunTheNumbers script from BashCo to conduct the audit.