# Gavin Andresen
# 2015-02-17 20:19:02
# https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=956442.msg10493565#msg10493565

Interesting idea, but I'm afraid I disagree with your premise. @p{par}

There is no tragedy-of-the-commons race to zero transaction fees, because miners do not have infinite bandwidth, memory or CPU to accept and validate transactions. @p{par}

We used to have a tragedy-of-the-commons situation with zero-fee transactions, but we solved that by rate-limiting them based on priority. And we have a working market for zero-fee transactions (see the graph @p{(link}here@p{link)}). @p{par}

Assuming network bandwidth is the eventual bottleneck, and assuming there is demand for transactions to fill the available network-wide bandwidth (even if that demand is transaction spammers), nodes will start dropping transactions before they relay them. Prioritizing them based on fee paid and dropping the lowest fee/kb transactions will result naturally in a working market for fee-paying transactions. @p{par}

As justusranvier points out, off-the-blockchain deals between transaction creators and miners doesn't change that logic, because low-fee transactions that are not broadcast break the O(1) block propagation assumption and have a direct cost to the miner. @p{par}

 @p{brk}
I think you are trying to solve a different problem: I think you are trying to ensure that "enough" fees are paid to secure the network as the block subsidy goes away. Yes? @p{brk}