BAL token inflation has been a topic of uncertainty for quite some time. With emissions weekly being at 145,000 BAL per week a common question arises of, how long can this last?
The answer is that long term, this is an unsustainable model. Holders of long-term projects want predictability of the total token supply over a long-term window. Not only this, but the rate at which BAL is emitted by the liquidity mining program must be curtailed to give a decreasing rate of inflation to the token over time. The change in tokenomics addresses the two issues directly with the new emissions schedule.
BAL emissions will decrease over time, halving every four years based on the date at which the tokenomics goes live. For example, this will be the simulated schedule for the first four-year period:
The entire emissions schedule can be seen here. Emissions are represented graphically below. At this rate the total supply of BAL will reach asymptotic behavior at roughly 94,000,000 BAL tokens in circulation. Therefore, an upper limit to the total supply is defined and set in stone for the future of Balancer Protocol. This change is irreversible and defines the permanent future for circulating BAL tokens.
