Taxonomy of Transaction Fees in Smart Contracts

The discussion centers on the implications of a scenario where mining becomes permissioned due to the necessity for wallets to be aware of and receive a copy of transactions for fees to be obtained. This situation underlines a systemic drawback within the framework of cryptocurrency mining and transaction processing, where the reliance on explicit permissions for fee acquisition could potentially alter the dynamics of mining profitability and accessibility.

There is an acknowledgment of the existence and importance of a market for implicit fees that currently outweighs the potential revenue from explicit, permissioned fees. Implicit fees refer to those not directly tied to transaction permissions but are instead derived from the broader context of transaction processing and block validation. The hope is that as long as this market remains robust, the negative impacts of permissioned explicit fees can be mitigated.

However, concerns are raised about a hypothetical future where blockchain blocks are consistently full, leading to a situation where the combined value of the block subsidy and implicit fees falls short of the potential earnings from permissioned explicit fees. Such a scenario poses a risk of introducing adverse effects on the ecosystem, possibly affecting the decentralization and open-access nature of blockchain technology. This edge case, though considered unlikely, highlights the need for awareness and preparedness within the community to address possible systemic challenges that could arise from shifts in the economic incentives structure governing blockchain mining and transaction verification.