Think about a state of affairs the place you’re heading off for a 100-year trip and also you need your wealth to outlive whenever you return. You determine to bury a secure that holds:
- Some gold bars
- A bunch of $100 payments
- Your bitcoin in chilly storage
What do you anticipate the result to be whenever you return out of your 100-year absence?
The gold bars will nonetheless be there in fine condition. The $100 payments can have bodily decayed and the buying energy will seemingly have dramatically weakened to the purpose the place the payments are nugatory.
What in regards to the bitcoin? What’s the bitcoin value?
The reply is dependent upon how the community operated throughout your lengthy absence. If different folks have been actively transacting, then the miners have been securing the community and your bitcoin can be secure and useful. If everybody places their cash in chilly storage and joins you in a 100-year absence, then transaction charges will plummet, miners will exit of enterprise, the community will atrophy and the cash can be nugatory.
In different phrases, the spine of the Bitcoin community is an assortment of miners who course of transactions and preserve the integrity of the blockchain by way of expending time and assets. Because the miners are compensated by way of transaction charges and predictably-declining block rewards, transactions should happen for miners to have the funds to safe the community.
From the beginning, the bitcoin ethos is that those that use the community should work at it. Having possession or stake confers no particular privileges. Proof of Work vs Proof of Stake.
Sadly, HODLers aren’t working. HODLers predict that others can be compensating miners in order that the HODLers’ stake will preserve its worth. In immediately’s design and maybe inadvertently, HODLers aren’t residing as much as the bitcoin ethos.
Working whereas HODLing
The query turns into, “The right way to safe the community (i.e. pay the miners) whereas HODLing?”
I imagine the reply is to implement a HODL_FEE, which might compensate miners from dormant addresses.
Consistent with the bitcoin ethos, the HODL_FEE could be charged:
(a) to any deal with that had no cash entering into or out for the final 52,500 blocks, which is one-quarter the halving interval (roughly 1-year), and
(b) in an quantity equal to 50% of Median Transaction Price over the earlier two weeks. Due to this fact, the HOLD_FEE could be re-set in the same method as the issue adjustment.
The HOLD_FEE is about to 50% MTF for 2 causes: first, the deal with might keep away from the HODL_FEE by making a easy transaction so we would like the HODL_FEE based mostly on present transaction charges, and second, the HODL_FEE is about to 50% MTF in order that miners prioritize present transactions after which conduct HODL_FEE txns with the remaining block area.
Good religion arguments might be made to both improve or lower the time and quantity of the HODL_Fee, however these parameters make intuitive sense.
Advantages of the HODL_FEE
Aligns Incentives – Along with block rewards and transaction charges, the HODL_FEE provides one other mechanism for miners to be compensated, thus, encouraging the miners to take care of the community integrity even when transaction volumes plummet. HODLers will profit essentially the most as their cash will stay an efficient retailer of worth.
Cleans up the Mud – The blockchain is suffering from Mud addresses that include quantities of sats which might be too small to conduct transactions. By one estimation, there are ~120 million addresses containing <1,000 sats (~$0.65), whereas the median transaction price for a comparatively quiet 24-hour interval in Could was 3,100 sats (~$1.90). With the HODL_Fee, all 120+ million addresses could be zeroed out and ~310 Bitcoin (~$20 million) could be paid to miners to assist safe the community.
There are one other ~20 million addresses with 1k-10k sats ($0.65-$6.50) with one other ~1,000 Bitcoin (~$65 million) which might finally be used to assist safe the community.
That’s numerous community cleanup with solely a de minimis improve in circulating provide.
Unlocks misplaced Cash – Sadly, it’s simple for cash to get locked in addresses the place the proprietor dies, turns into disinterested or forgets their keys. The HODL_FEE will convey a few of these cash again into circulation, however at a really gradual fee. If a dormant deal with holds 1 BTC and the HODL_FEE is 2,000 sats, it could take 50,000 years for the dormant addresses to be zeroed out, which ought to give the proprietor loads of time to get up from their coma and reclaim their cash!
Assessments your Keys – A pleasant aspect advantage of the HODL_FEE is that it encourages homeowners to make use of their addresses, which implies that not less than annually they will check to see in the event that they keep in mind their keys. This is able to appear to be particularly vital in multi-sig situations.
Encourages Community Utilization – The HODL_FEE ought to improve community utilization by encouraging homeowners to stack sats and/or spend their sats. Growing the community utilization helps make sure that miners are compensated correctly and that Bitcoin stays a retailer of worth.
Arguments in opposition to the HODL_FEE
Introduces a Tax – The HODL_FEE appears to run counter to the libertarian ethos as it’s designed to drive people to behave in a sure approach (i.e. maintain stacking/spending) or pay a tax. No one likes taxes and no person likes the concept of a tax for simply present.
But, a quarterly or annual custody price is quite common in financial institution or brokerage accounts, and the HODL_FEE is comparable.
Most significantly, the bitcoin ethos is about Proof of Work. You don’t get advantages solely from possession. Bitcoin homeowners can not anticipate others to safe the community, after which have bitcoin stay a steady retailer of worth.
Reduces Anonymity – The HODL_FEE can doubtlessly cut back anonymity by encouraging people to make transactions (which might be surveilled), to consolidate their holdings into fewer addresses (which usually tend to linked to an proprietor) or to maintain their cash on exchanges (which received’t should pay the HODL_FEE due to their excessive transaction volumes).
Nonetheless, anonymity at all times comes at a value. Folks can construct excessive fences, transfer to distant areas, use VPNs, and many others. however every of those actions has a value to it. For HODLers, the most affordable and best approach to preserve anonymity whereas making certain community integrity is to easily HODL and have the HODL_FEE withdrawn from their deal with yearly.
Creates Pointless Transactions – The HODL_FEE will create hundreds of thousands of transactions, both by way of the precise HODL_FEE or by encouraging people to stack and spend. The HODL-FEE transactions can be very light-weight and straightforward to calculate, and the incentives are designed in order that miners course of present transactions earlier than HODL-FEE transactions.
Regardless, there can be hundreds of thousands of recent transactions, and the simplest answer could be to extend the blockspace in order that transactions may very well be processed effectively and miners would get extra income to safe the community.
Remaining Ideas
The Bitcoin ethos is Proof of Work, and HODLers must work too.
The HODL_FEE:
- Is Truthful
- Intuitive and straightforward to grasp
- Simple to program and calculate
- Encourages stacking and spending
- Rewards miners for sustaining community integrity
- Helps guarantee Bitcoin maintains its worth
Who’s prepared to write down a BIP?
It is a visitor put up by Bob. Opinions expressed are totally their very own and don’t essentially replicate these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Journal.