Calling it tax is okay

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Avatar for cashdev
4 years ago

Proponents of a the new consensus rule, where 12% of the miners earned reward is required to be sent to a hong kong shell company, do not want to you call it tax.

Their argument is that no state violence happens if you do not include this reward. Cops will not come knocking down some miners door that claims his entire reward for himself.

And they are correct. They are technically correct. The best kind of correct.

To most of us, tax is something we are forced to pay, supposedly out of necessity to maintain our local community.

When we're late on tax, cops don't come to our house. We're charged with late fees. The state threatens to dissolve our company. We are economically punished.

When a miners block is orphaned, they are economically punished. Before their block is mined, they are economically threatened to have their block orphaned.

This concept of taking a claim from another miners reward is new. We don't have a word for it. So for lack of a better word, it's okay to call it tax. The word describes the concept well, well enough. The word tax is also negative to most of us, and as such it may also describes how we feel about it.

What shall we call it if not tax?

We don't have a good word for it. Proponents will name it something less negative sounding, such a "service fee for the miners". They may also make it sound positive. The zcash community has a name for the concept that gives me a chuckle, they call it "Founders' Reward".

Opponent may not want to call it tax either. The word tax may rub them the wrong way.

Whether you are opponent or proponent, if you have a good word for the concept, share it with me in the comments. When discussing, I'd suggest we don't get hung up on what the concept is called. Try to see past the word used.

But it's okay too, to have a chuckle at absurd names for this concept.

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Avatar for cashdev
4 years ago

Comments

Hello sir, take my love. If you don't mind, Will you give me you Facebook account link. I want to talk about Read cash.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

It may be called "royalty". I think the electricity being used is generated by the company, hence it must be compensated.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

"To most of us, tax is something we are forced to pay, supposedly out of necessity to maintain our local community.

When we're late on tax, cops don't come to our house. We're charged with late fees. The state threatens to dissolve our company. We are economically punished."

What happens if you don't pay the late fees? What happens if you don't dissove your company?

Because the violence doesn't come at the first step doesn't mean the threat of violence does not exist. Common error from statists is to hand wave away the inherent underlying threat of violence that backs ever single law.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

''Development Premium''... like an insurance for developing, maintaining and scaling the infra ;)

$ 0.50
4 years ago

I like it. Better than "service fee for the miners" for sure.

$ 0.01
4 years ago

"reappropriated issuance"

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Privilege

$ 0.50
4 years ago

Cartel privilege?

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I think tax, cartel, and privilege are all good words.

  • You justified the word tax in your article.
  • Even proponents describe the plan as a cartel, but while cartels are generally good for the industry, they are generally bad for end users of the product produced by the industry (inferior product and/or higher price), so it rightfully has a negative connotation too.
  • The word privilege rightfully emphasises that the plan goes against the peer-to-peer nature of Bitcoin Cash.
$ 0.50
4 years ago

Private enforced monetary base redirection.

$ 0.61
4 years ago

Tithe? Notre Dame restoration donation?

$ 0.50
4 years ago

NOT A TAX.

For a miner's incentive to exist, it is not enough to publish the next valid block before anyone else.

It is also necessary that a majority of the hashpower decide voluntarily to work on continuing exactly that block.

Non violent. Without coercion. Voluntarily. Legitimate.

That is, the coinbase does NOT belong to the miner making the block, until, some time later, the majority of hashpower decides mine that block. Superior in hierarchy, and with none above it.

That is, the coinbase belongs to "the majority of the hashpower". As entity. Conformed by many miners.

And it is incredible that such intelligent people, with so many years veterans, fail to understand the most fundamental point of the whitepaper.

A decentralized authority. Order in chaos. A new form of executive power.

That's why there's no name. Because there is an authority... and at the same time, it's decentralized. And your mind explodes.

And if your mind doesn't explode, you just don't get it.

To call a "taxt" or "Cartel", is due to the political-ideological toxicity of Bitcoinland, which does not help to understand something new that has never happened in history until 2009.

In other words, tax, Cartel, Corporation... words many hated by ideology. But what a coincidence...

The next thing will be to say that the miners are like a State. :)

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I dislike this "funding plan" a lot. But I think calling it a tax is not a good way to oppose it, especially when people say that this plan is against the non-aggression principle.

When we're late on tax, cops don't come to our house. We're charged with late fees. The state threatens to dissolve our company. We are economically punished.

I wouldn't call this an economic punishment. What if we disagree? What if we disobey and doesn't pay the late fees? The State's violence (or threat of violence) is hidden, but it is still there.

$ 0.50
4 years ago

You can flee the country. Just like some proponents of this plan tell opponents to leave Bitcoin Cash.

$ 0.50
4 years ago

So you are saying people are free to extort other people out of town.

$ 0.00
User's avatar JZA
4 years ago

Too late for that, everyone is calling it a Tax right now, and took a few nanoseconds to get to that conclusion independently. My guess is that promoting it or not will be irrelevant when it sounds like a Tax on its own. Of course we can go with the second word, extortion.

$ 0.25
User's avatar JZA
4 years ago

Of course we can go with the second word, extortion.

exactly! lol .. i thought "tax" was rather soft in its tone .. i'm actually NOT against this proposal, just wish people would call it what it is

$ 0.00
4 years ago