Some miners at OCEAN have started using the Coin Age Priority algorithm during block template construction using DATUM. First, Bitcoin Core first selected transactions to be included in blocks based on what they first saw in their memory pool. This logic was eventually replaced by prioritizing older coins, ie those that had been sitting around unworn longer, over other coins. Eventually this was only applied to a small part of the blockchain, and then it was completely removed around the time of Segwit. It is still hosted in Bitcoin Knots.
I can only speculate as to the motives of the miners doing this, but with OCEAN's rhetoric I can guess that it has something to do with prioritizing “financial” matters over others. Even if it's not, even if it's just to help small owners of UTXO value, it's still just as irrational.
You can partition blockspace as a miner all you want, and prioritize the ordering of transactions however you want within those partitions, but that doesn't change the fact that funky value is a blockspace is valued on an open market. If criteria other than the tax rate are used to decide which transactions should be included, you leave money on the table. The only situation where that would not be the case is one where these criteria were 1:1 equal to a cost-based decision, which would be a meaningless criterion.
By creating a subset of blocks selected by other criteria, two things are achieved in the end: 1) leaving money on the table as a miner, as by definition rods -any meaningful measurement leading to the collection of less fees, and 2) creating a bucket of block submitted to competitive “fee” weights according to whatever the different criteria used, without any pressure that creates a direct income increase for miners using these new criteria.
The new subsection of blockspace does not ultimately reduce the burden of fees, it just makes them make less money and users take advantage of the new transaction selection criteria this is subject to various competitive pressures from which miners do not directly benefit.
You can't hide from the fact that blockspace is a funky good price on the open market. You can accept that, or you can lose money. The only other option is to try to censor classes of transactions you don't like, and if you succeed, you'll destroy Bitcoin's core property in the process.
Mining remains decentralized, widely distributed by many small operators, essential for Bitcoin's resistance to censorship. It is a shame to see such signs that so few miners are economically irrational, as it has a huge impact on their long-term success.
This article is a Take. The views expressed are entirely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
