Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] BIP: Block signal enforcement via tx fees

From: Eric Voskuil <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 12 May 2017 22:36:43 -0700

On 05/12/2017 08:54 PM, ZmnSCPxj wrote:
> Good morning,
> 
>> I do not see why any person would want to pay, and then trust,
>> another to mine accordingly. Each person can mine and attain
>> their level of influence. This not only avoids the side payment,
>> but earns the person money.
> 
> The problem, is that, the rate of conversion of Bitcoin-> hashrate
> is different for different people.
> 
> For some, it's very cheap to convert Bitcoin -> hashrate.  For
> others, it's very expensive.  The reason, is the large difference
> in electricity rates depending on country.
> 
> It's all very well for those who can get electricity cheaply.  But,
> for some, it is not.
> 
> Thus, paying someone with better Bitcoin->hashrate conversion via
> fees such as these is more economically logical, than to suffer a
> lower Bitcoin->hashrate conversion.

Despite the tedious explanation of absolute advantage, this is simply
an argument for all people to pay one person to mine, as there is
presumably always one person who will be able to mine more efficiently
than all others.

The argument fails to recognize that mining for one's self may (or may
not) result in a net loss, but donating to a miner in the hope of some
action is comparatively a total loss. One is an expense in exchange
for the intended social outcome, and the other is payment for
representative government.

And in this form of representative government that you propose, if we
assume that miners are somehow bound to honor the payments (votes),
how are the votes distributed? Is this supposed to be democratic in
the sense of one person one vote? Your argument below is clearly based
on that idea. However the result would be very different. The
wealthier would of course exert the greater influence. So the idea
fails by its own standard.

>> If a person does not want to bother then he/she clearly does not
>> have a strong opinion. As developers we should be focused on
>> reducing the complexities of mining and of validation, not
>> finding ways for people to avoid participating in these
>> necessarily distributed roles.
> 
> It is also, very obviously, clear that you are operating under
> very strange assumptions, that all people are already equal
> somehow, or that someone who is paid x10 more is strictly superior,
> even though skill-wise and ability-wise, they are the same, and the
> one paid less is simply suffering due to the country where he or
> she is born in, through no fault of their own.

You are making a political argument wrapped in appeal to emotion. Both
are pointless in this context.

e