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@ Leo Wandersleb
2025-05-14 08:26:15
https://npub1gm7tuvr9atc6u7q3gevjfeyfyvmrlul4y67k7u7hcxztz67ceexs078rf6.blossom.band/8af51bc588d72a5a48558163f4046ff88d84953ed1bc819b3eb4269601cad035.png
The above chart is titled "Bitcoin Daily Miner Revenue". Block reward + fees. A better title for this chart would be the "Security Budget". This chart looks suspiciously equal to the mere "Bitcoin Block Reward Per Day":
https://npub1gm7tuvr9atc6u7q3gevjfeyfyvmrlul4y67k7u7hcxztz67ceexs078rf6.blossom.band/34bfc9c031a911e5a296dd20c2b59787a0ed98731959c665f9f1dfaca2a26264.png
Others like nostr:npub18d4r6wanxkyrdfjdrjqzj2ukua5cas669ew2g5w7lf4a8te7awzqey6lt3 focus mainly on fees paid which also looks grim if you have a vague understanding that fees will be our only security budget soon:
https://npub1gm7tuvr9atc6u7q3gevjfeyfyvmrlul4y67k7u7hcxztz67ceexs078rf6.blossom.band/77e1891a2aca6b52463631d0d8b5175b0617ef83a389790ea5f59e2fa86c13fd.png
Fees have exceeded the block reward only for few blocks during the most extreme fee events but over a day, fees peaked at 60% of the Security Budget with prior peaks of 40% several halfings ago.
https://npub1gm7tuvr9atc6u7q3gevjfeyfyvmrlul4y67k7u7hcxztz67ceexs078rf6.blossom.band/83e35475b4139a6a36288bfc39146cf33d7019976202aa07eefa45017cd19bf0.png
Layer 2 protocols can afford to pay much higher fees per Byte for their Layer 1 needs but at this point, who even cares using L2 when L1 is dirt cheap?
Do we need spammers to increase the security budget? I think non-financial protocols could fill that gap for a while but in the past, these "protocols" often were intentionally disruptive or even openly hostile against Bitcoin, scheduling "mints" such that fees spiked which only disrupts the monetary use of Bitcoin. And that's only the fee part of these "protocols" as they bloat the UTXO set, too.