...and why finding an alternative solution to the BCH infrastructure fund has importance to the wider libertarian cause.
Libertarianism and 'the roads'
In the UK we have road tax. This is a tax you only pay if you own a car. It is entirely 'voluntary' in the sense that you can choose not to drive a car. It is used to build and maintain the roads. It is there to ensure we do not suffer a 'tragedy of the commons' and end up stuck in traffic jams on dirt tracks...or so the statist rhetoric goes. A perfect simile for the infrastructure fund on BCH?
Many of us are drawn to crypto because of our libertarian/voluntarian leanings, and as any seasoned libertarian will tell you, the most annoying yet persistent attempted rebuttable of libertarianism is 'the roads'. It is assumed that a libertarian system cannot possibly prevent a tragedy of the commons in any sphere. The most illustrated example (often in meme form) is highway maintenance. We are all presumed to be saved from infrastructure collapse by good 'ole laws and taxes.
Because it is a much used attack vector against libertarianism it also the most readily refuted. Simply pay for the roads you use.
But we are told that that would be too 'complicated'. Instead you have to pay for the roads you use, the roads you don't use, the roads you don't want to use because they bulldozed a meadow to build and the high-tech multi-million super smart highways which seem to be like any other highway but with more speed cameras.
This is not 'voluntary'. It is not fair or effective or value for money.
It is an apt simile though.
The Infrastructure Fund proposal on BCH:
The above example illustrates that the difference between 'tax' and a 'voluntary' solution to funding is choosing what you fund. Not by voting with/against others on how to allocate a central pot of funds, but individually and directly.
Fork, feather fork blocks of non-contributing miners if you wish, but once you take away control over what and who is funded, it becomes a tax.
Why does this matter beyond BCH?
This is our 'roads'. This is how we 'idealists' prove that a libertarian solution to the tragedy of the commons can work.
We need to do better than 'tax'.
"It is entirely 'voluntary' in the sense that you can choose not to drive a car."
What happens to you if you drive a car but don't pay the tax? Do they just leave you alone? Or does someone eventually show up at your door to throw you in a cage.
What happens to you if you create a BCH block but don't include dev funding? Does someone eventually show up at your door to throw you in a cage?
People voluntarily choosing to not do business with you is not a tax.