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Transaction Fees Instead of Inflation
Fromsatoshi@vistomail.comTocryptography@metzdowd.comRein reply to James A. DonaldSubjectBitcoin P2P e-cash paperDateMon, 10 Nov 2008 02:14:30 GMTSourceCryptography Mailing List (metzdowd.com)
James A. Donald wrote: > Furthermore, it cannot be made to work, as in the > proposed system the work of tracking who owns what coins > is paid for by seigniorage, which requires inflation. If you're having trouble with the inflation issue, it's easy to tweak it for transaction fees instead. It's as simple as this: let the output value from any transaction be 1 cent less than the input value. Either the client software automatically writes transactions for 1 cent more than the intended payment value, or it could come out of the payee's side. The incentive value when a node finds a proof-of-work for a block could be the total of the fees in the block. Satoshi Nakamoto
✦ AI COMMENTARY
Donald presses on economics: the system is paid for by seigniorage, which requires inflation. Satoshi's reply quietly contains Bitcoin's long-term future — "it's easy to tweak it for transaction fees instead." The pivot from block-subsidy to fee-driven security, anticipated in a single line in 2008.