When it comes to Bitcoin Cash as a cryptocurrency, the fundamentals are strong, and so far it seems like there are a lot more features coming to it in the future, but there's one thing about Bitcoin Cash that sticks out like a sore thumb: its poor performance as a cryptocurrency in terms of market value and return on investment. At best, active users on the network have stagnated, and adoption has been almost none, despite all the effort and resources put into trying to make Bitcoin Cash succeed. More interestingly, despite being far better in terms of innovation and user experience, Bitcoin Cash hasn't managed to gain any traction at all, and in fact seems to only be going down in value relative to Bitcoin.
Let's be honest: While price isn't everything, it matters a whole lot more than the Bitcoin Cash community would like to admit. When the price of Bitcoin Cash goes up, the hashrate also goes up as securing the network becomes more profitable, making it less prone to 51% attacks. The price is extremely important to BCH's value as a currency, but the primary goal is becoming peer-to-peer cash for the world, so to start things off, here's my list:
Completely erase all traces of the IFP, including the dead code, and make it 100% clear that there will NEVER be a reactivation or attempt to reactivate it
Regardless of the IFP being cancelled, the code supporting it should be removed from it, even if that code isn't being activated, or there are no plans to activate it in the future. If it is completely cancelled, there should be NO reason for it to still exist. It is extremely unfair that 12.5% of what a miner produces from a block reward (their property) goes towards funding development. From the perspective of a miner, why would anyone mine a chain in which a big amount of their profit goes towards people who didn't put in the labour or bear the expenses of creating a block? From this perspective, both Bitcoin and Bitcoin SV are far more economically viable to mine.
Regardless of your view as someone who is a part of the Bitcoin Cash community on whether the IFP is good or not, it's clear that other people within the crypto community see it as a bad thing for BCH, and rightfully so. We don't want to just appeal to Bitcoin Cash supporters. We also want to appeal to those outside of the Bitcoin Cash community. Developers shouldn't be given money and resources for free just because they're developers.
One of the main talking points in favour of the IFP is the question about how developers will get a consistent stream of income/funding for infrastructure development. I think this argument is extremely flawed, because it makes the assumption that consistent funds (also acquired for free) will help for infrastructure development when that's not necessarily the case (and in fact, quite the opposite). In fact, I think the fact that developers are not getting constant, guaranteed funding is what will help bring value to the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem.
If developers are not guaranteed funding, their only source of funding are investors who donate money based on how they feel about development, so funding completely relies on providing value to those within the ecosystem, rather than being guaranteed "donations" regardless of their performance as developers. If people are happy with the value you bring to development, they won't have an issue with giving you more money to support you.
Replace the difficulty adjustment algorithm ASAP
I've already made a post about this on Reddit, but I feel like it is extremely important for the future of Bitcoin Cash. With the current difficulty adjustment algorithm in place, confirmation times are extremely inconsistent and "loyal" miners are punished for helping to secure the network regardless of profitability. Not only does this strongly discourage miners from persistently supporting the chain, but it also makes it extremely easy for people who are opposed to Bitcoin Cash, and those who are following normal, profit-seeking incentives to take advantage of the system at the expense of network reliability and user experience. The longer this is in place, the longer Bitcoin Cash is going to bleed a slow and painful death.
Completely remove the 50 chained unconfirmed transaction output limit, or significantly raise the limit to the point where there is no effective limit
The 50 unconfirmed transaction output limit is an artificial bottleneck placed to discourage "spam" on the blockchain. The problem with this limit is that it prevents businesses from making efficient transactions on the blockchain, and ultimately kills the utility of Bitcoin Cash as a payment system. Businesses ultimately need to make payments with multiple outputs if they're paying employees, and if there is an extremely limited chained transaction limit, this discourages businesses in using Bitcoin Cash for payments.
Not too long ago, SatoshiDice, a business that has operated on Bitcoin for several years has had issues with this limit imposed on Bitcoin Cash. Some people are saying that developers "shouldn't be forced to work for free" to lift this limit, but I don't think funding is needed in order to remove this limit. In fact, I think this will be good for BCH, and therefore increase the value of the network, indirectly benefitting developers for raising this limit. SatoshiDice has already said that they're thinking of stopping business with Bitcoin Cash since this limit is getting in the way of them doing business. If people can't do business with Bitcoin Cash, they won't.
Lift the 2MB soft limit put on blocksize
The entire point of Bitcoin was to be able to scale on-chain through increasing the blocksize limit when the network needs it, and congestion is taking place. If our entire argument is that increasing the blocksize limit will allow for more throughput, and can be done efficiently, there should be no reason for a 2MB soft limit to be put into place, because then that just proves that Bitcoin can scale far better than Bitcoin Cash without even increasing the blocksize limit. If there is a limit of 2MB per block, that means the maximum throughput it can handle right now is less than that of BTC, which defeats the purpose of why Bitcoin Cash exists to begin with.
The price needs to increase to a point where Bitcoin Cash can be taken seriously
If I'm being 100% honest, Bitcoin Cash has a lot to worry about when it comes to price. It has been losing value to both Bitcoin itself and fiat currency, and NOT shown a single sign of going up anytime soon. As an investment for advancing the future of our economy, and bringing economic freedom to people all over the world, it has faired VERY poorly. Yes, its primary use is not as a store of value, but being a store of value is ALSO extremely important if you want people to take Bitcoin Cash seriously.
Why would anyone invest in a currency that is not only extremely volatile, but has also consistently lost value without any signs of going up in the future? Anyone who has seen the price crash that Bitcoin Cash has faced will think that the community is delusional for even thinking about the possibility of a "flippening" taking place, and you can't blame them. Bitcoin Cash has lost 88% of its value to Bitcoin since the split occurred in 2017. Why would anyone in their right mind invest in it, when they're extremely likely to lose money rather than gain it, even over a longer period of time? If the price manages to even go up to 0.15 BTC, people are much more likely to take Bitcoin Cash seriously.
As a community, we need to go onto r/CryptoCurrency, and ACTIVELY debunk all the FUD, myths, and lies about Bitcoin Cash
I think this one is one of the most important things about Bitcoin Cash's survival. Currently, the crypto community's view on Bitcoin Cash is extremely negative, and Bitcoin Cash is mocked for being a "shitcoin" or "scam". It is our job to educate others, and tell them the truth with irrefutable evidence so people can change their minds and be more open to it.
As far as Bitcoin Cash's future is concerned, I am extremely worried, and it looks like it's on the path to failure if things keep going the way they're going. I'm not a "concerned troll". I very much want it to succeed, but I'm getting more and more doubtful by the day. If Bitcoin Cash splits again in the future, or the IFP activates, I will drop all support for it, and go towards another project like Monero, Nano, or Ethereum. I hope we can all work together and make progress towards improving the community image of Bitcoin Cash, and its success as a cryptocurrency.
You make good points. IMO, the IFP is in the past and I consider it dead, so I would agree that it should be removed from the code, especially since Flipstarter is now available to help fund developers. Some people see this differently, so I just thought I would share my thoughts on it.