Bitcoin ABC, Jiang Zhuoer Determined to Implement a Mining Tax on Bitcoin Cash

While the cryptocurrency community was celebrating huge gains and mourning a correction that was minor in comparison, Bitcoin Cash land was taken over by drama as per usual. As has been the case recently, the reason was the infrastructure funding plan proposed by BTC.TOP’s Jiang Zhuoer.

Despite diminishing support for the idea, Zhuoer had not given up on it, looking to find support by fine tuning the finer details of the proposal.

And after two weeks of relative silence on the subject, major node implementation Bitcoin ABC came through with an announcement of their support for the latest version of the plan, featuring a 5% development fee, a BIP-9-like voting system and a whitelist of recipient addresses. As it stands today, miners would have the option to redirect their funds to a general fund, Bitcoin ABC, BCHD and Electron Cash.

Bitcoin.com’s Roger Ver was quick to criticise the team’s approach, elaborating on his own views. In addition, he shared that the claim that he signed up for the initial funding plan was misleading, perhaps due to the language barrier and a misunderstanding.

The sudden announcement caused major community outrage, even eclipsing that of the initial plan. Amaury Sechet’s comments on the situation further fuelled the public frustration.

Regarding the Bitcoin Cash Infrastructure Funding Plan, I am certain now that it should be scrapped immediately.

— Mark Lundeberg (@MarkLundeberg) February 17, 2020

Why should the Bitcoin Cash developer funds prioritize projects that ‘need’ money?

That is totally backwards and reeks of government works programs and the DMV.

You fund projects that have proven business models and past financial success. pic.twitter.com/lDcOkwKKWA

— dmkgll (@dmkgll) February 16, 2020

Code obeys hashpower to know which blockchain is Bitcoin.

Therefore, blockchain transcends the power of devs.

Hashpower is for firing incompetent devs.

It is a desparasite and unifying vector.

Blockchain without miners empowerment tends to self-destruct for multiple reasons.

— Javier González González (@JavierGonzalez) July 29, 2018

Still, Zhuoer added his own summary of the latest iteration of the proposal, signifying that ABC’s actions are a result of internal discussions and his personal support.

To further stir the pot, former BTC developer Gregory Maxwell took to the most popular Bitcoin Cash subreddit to share that Amaury Sechet of Bitcoin ABC personally asked him to develop a tax-free version of Bitcoin ABC, in hopes that the community’s unconditional mistrust for Blockstream’s former CTO would steer the community sentiment in the opposite direction. No proof was provided for his claims at this point in time.

Comment from discussion nullc’s comment from discussion "If BCH owes Amaury up to 1bn dollars for developing bitcoin-abc, what does it owe the people who wrote >90% of the code inside it?".

Perhaps even without the drama, this proposal’s chances of actually becoming a reality were extremely slim. It would decrease the profits for all SHA256 miners, 96% of whom are not mining Bitcoin Cash at present. Only those with vested interest in BCH in particular can hope to see any financial gains from it and it is highly unlikely that they could contribute the 2/3 of votes necessary to start the operation.

In fact, shortly after the most recent proposal by ABC and Zhuoer, SBICrypto mined a block, adding in the following coinbase datum:

SBICrypto.com Pool. No to https://www.bitcoinabc.org/2020-02-15-miner-fund

Ironically, at the height of the infighting, Bitcoin Cash’s price rose above $400 again, beginning a slow recovery from a massive 18% drop in 30 hours, while detaching from BTC, which is seeing a continuing price drop.