Monetary policy in cryptocurrencies has been a big area of discussion lately, especially regarding the differences between Bitcoin’s and that of Ethereum. Bitcoin’s fixed supply is tailored to make Bitcoin appealing as a store of value, but it also means that miners will eventually have to be incentivized by transaction fees alone. And that creates a lot of uncertainty for Bitcoin’s future-- there is no existing proof-of-concept for a blockchain that incentivizes miners using just a fee market. Continued improvement of layer-two and layer-three solutions like Lightning Network could mean even less on-chain activity for miners to process.

Ethereum’s monetary policy, on the other hand, is still being determined. This creates uncertainty for investors and those using Ethereum as a store of value, but it also allows for more flexibility in the future, something Ethereum supporters point to as an advantage. Given the uncertainty around the Bitcoin model, Ethereum’s development team does not yet know the ideal monetary policy for a cryptocurrency and can try to figure that out in time. Critics point to this uncertainty as a major reason why Ethereum will never achieve store-of-value status.