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In a Proof-of-Work protocol, a certain amount of the blockchain's native coin is issued with the minting of a new block as a way to reward miners for their efforts and involvement in the network. As far as I know, though, no coins exist prior to the creation of the genesis block, and after this point, new coins begin to be issued at some rate.

How does this work in a Proof-of-Stake protocol? How does the issuing of new ADA work in Cardano? Was there a certain number of ADA created at the beginning? Or has the 31.9B ADA currently in circulation (out of the 45B max total) all been a product of stake pools forging new blocks?

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All ADA has already been minted. Technically it was all minted in the first block. The stake pool payouts come from the reserves and transaction fees.

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    not the treasury, the "reserves". See page 2 of the ledger spec. The treasury is for funding the development of Cardano, not for rewards payouts.
    – EGMSSE
    Apr 30, 2021 at 21:44
  • Thanks for the clarification.
    – nalyd88
    May 1, 2021 at 0:18
  • @EGMSSE is someone "in charge" of the reserves? who or what decides what and how much comes out of them? is it all just managed by the protocol?
    – desolate_mountain
    May 1, 2021 at 3:58
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    @desolate_mountain Right now, IOHK is managing these variables until the release of governance where users will be able to vote to change variables in the protocol. Also you can check out this infographic here: i.redd.it/wbmip3szxeg61.jpg to see how rewards are being paid out.
    – Ahmedie-m
    May 1, 2021 at 4:48

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