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Today many people on crypto twitter learned that some of the more popular crypto data providers don't actually run nodes and pull supply data from the chain
Some years ago, I realized that, even though this data is in theory "available" on chain, it's inaccessible to most. That's part of the reason @coinmetrics exists. Don't trust, verify. So CM does some of the verification. (not a substitute for running your own node!)
The CM team is very serious about actually inspecting the ledger itself to derive figures like supply. Other data providers make naive extrapolations (like assuming every BTC block contains 6.25 BTC etc) or blindly trust the issuing teams
All of the supply data on the CM website is derived by inspecting each blockchain directly – no assumptions. It's a lot of work. Ask @khannib how annoying auditing supply is. Many blockchains make it incredibly difficult.
https://network-charts.coinmetrics.io/
https://network-charts.coinmetrics.io/
This supply verification led to some startling findings.
- BTCP had covert inflation beyond what was forecasted: https://coinmetrics.io/bitcoin-private/
- Stellar had an inflation bug which was _very_ quietly disclosed
- Ripple misreported their escrow mechanics:
https://coinmetrics.io/an-on-chain-analysis-of-ripples-escrow-system/
- BTCP had covert inflation beyond what was forecasted: https://coinmetrics.io/bitcoin-private/
- Stellar had an inflation bug which was _very_ quietly disclosed
- Ripple misreported their escrow mechanics:
https://coinmetrics.io/an-on-chain-analysis-of-ripples-escrow-system/
Here's a detailed piece breaking down the auditability traits of several public blockchains. Some are frankly impossible to audit, either because of closed source or poorly documented code. https://coinmetrics.io/coin-metrics-state-of-the-network-issue-30/
If you want to test whether a data provider is just trusting a block explorer, rather than actually inspecting the ledger directly, look and see if they capture the Stellar inflation bug in 2017. XLM blocks claimed the supply was 102.xxB in the 'total coins field'. It... was not
Supply is tricky because we're talking about assets that can be lost, burned, not brought into existence, etc. It's an irony that blockchains are meant to be auditable by nature but that's often borderline impossible
(source for above chart) https://network-charts.coinmetrics.io/#257
(source for above chart) https://network-charts.coinmetrics.io/#257
Even Bitcoin supply is more complex than you might think. Here's a fun exploration on all the ways coins can be lost or rendered inactive. https://coinmetrics.substack.com/p/coin-metrics-state-of-the-network-d2e
The only point I have is: these assets are meant to be natively auditable. Everyone should take advantage of that fact. Sometimes just doing the work and inspecting the ledger itself is extremely revealing.
Last note! The supply (and all other) data on @coinmetrics is EOD as of 00:00 UTC. It will clash with other data providers who might be reporting different frequencies or using a different daily close. That's to be expected.
