I want to ensure I understand this:
We don’t want people going years without minting, then having a quick burst and getting rewards from the 90-day maximum coinage, and then stop minting again - so we are proposing a 1-year limit. How does this 1-year limit take effect - does it mean that someone who accumulates PPC for a couple of years, then mints, receives no 90-day coinage, which is set back to a coinage of 0?
Or does it mean something else? The “drawbacks” section says that, “Small outputs may not have a chance to mint within 1 year”. Does this mean the 1-year limit is also affecting people who are continuously minting, which a small coinholder has to do, to get a reward?
If someone holds coins for 5 years, then mints, under current protocol they get 5% reward for doing next to nothing to help chain security. This proposal would limit it at 1%.
Continuous minters using standard client operations split their outputs smaller and smaller with time. Eventually, due to random chance and fluctuating pos difficulty, they may have outputs that take over 1 year to mint. In that case, this proposal would limit their rewards earned beyond 1 year. It is a fringe case, but I personally believe it is a regular thing for continuous minters that stay on the network for 3-5 years.
Regarding the continuous minters whose outputs are split into tiny amounts, can they do an annual “springclean” by using coin control to group together the tiny outputs, and send them to an external location, and then return them back to the client, so they are grouped together as one amount, thereby restoring normal odds of minting?
Sure, they can simply do a self transaction, no need to move to an external wallet. But then they burn coindays. We are considering alternative approaches by combining outputs while minting a block, so that you earn the reward on the outputs you combine. That’s still in development though (rfc16).