Subject: [bitcoindev] Re: [BIP Proposal] Proof-of-Activity Reclamation (PoAR)

From: Boris Nagaev <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2025 12:28:14 -0700 (PDT)

Hi Donald,

Thanks for sharing your proposal!

There are several additional objections worth considering:

   1. It would require a hard fork. Older nodes would reject blocks with a 
   higher-than-expected miner reward. By contrast, SegWit and Taproot were 
   implemented as soft forks.
   2. It breaks long-term inheritance schemes. Imagine a newborn inheriting 
   1000 BTC from a wealthy relative. The relative sets a 30-year timelock to 
   ensure the funds are not misused during childhood. This proposal would 
   interfere with that intention and potentially strip the heir of their 
   rightful inheritance.
   3. It penalizes long-term planning and low time preference. Users who 
   intentionally lock up funds for decades (whether for inheritance, security, 
   or economic reasons) would be disproportionately impacted.
   4. It changes who pays for network security. Miners are expected to be 
   compensated in the long term by transaction fees paid by active transaction 
   senders. This proposal would instead take value from long-term holders who 
   aren't participating in the transaction flow, effectively taxing them 
   without consent.

Best regards,
Boris

On Tuesday, July 15, 2025 at 3:26:35 PM UTC-3 Donald Dienst wrote:

Dear Bitcoin developers,

I would like to propose a new BIP titled "Proof-of-Activity Reclamation 
(PoAR)," which aims to address the long-term economic effects of lost and 
abandoned UTXOs.

This proposal introduces a fully automated and rule-based mechanism to 
gradually recycle coins that have been provably inactive for over 20 years. 
These coins are returned to the undistributed pool and slowly reintroduced 
via future block rewards—extending miner incentives while respecting the 21 
million BTC cap.

You can view the full proposal here:
https://gist.github.com/Brandchatz/56c39d289db9e56190c13922850815b8

I welcome your thoughts, suggestions, and critiques.

Best regards,  
Donald Dienst  
[email-masked]

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