Sergio, you can call this an ORBS attack or an attempt of ad-hoc coalition forming for a fork. Preparation Step: Include a transaction sending a sizable amount between two of your own addresses in every block. Miner can do this at zero cost in their own blocks. Execution: Embed into the preferred fork a transaction double spending the regular do-nothing transaction with one that offers a sufficiently high fee. This offers inceptive to rational miner to join the ad-hoc coalition for that fork. Attempting to form an ad-hoc coalition using above steps is open to anyone, just cheaper and easier to execute for a miner. Fortunately cost for (cumulative) proof-of-work creates a lower bound to the incentive that need to be offered. So your worry of times where block subsidy is low is unwarranted as cost of POW will be high. I do not think “disallowing” the implementation of rational mining is a viable option, since no one needs permission to implement whatever optimization he thinks is profitable and within the rules. Tamas Blummer