Roger Ver Withdraws Support for Proposed Bitcoin Cash Miner Tax

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) proponent and former Bitcoin (BTC) evangelist, Roger Ver has withdrawn support for a proposed Bitcoin Cash miner tax following backlash from several BCH miners and investors.

Bitcoin Cash Miner Tax Won’t Work Without Consensus

In a blog post published by Bitcoin.com on Tuesday (January 28, 2019), Ver declared that the proposed miner tax required greater consensus within the BCH community. An excerpt from the post reads:

“As it stands now, Bitcoin.com will not go through with supporting any plan unless there is more agreement in the ecosystem such that the risk of a chain split is negligible. We think it is clear that the existing proposal does not have enough support, and we will be working to come up with a plan that is profitable for all the relevant parties and which preserves the fundamental economics of Bitcoin Cash.”

Earlier in January, some Bitcoin Cash proponents argued for a 12.5 percent miner tax to fund developmental efforts on the BCH network. Critics of the proposal say such a move flies in the face of the philosophy of decentralization that ought to govern the blockchain.

For Ver, BCH devs, miners, and other stakeholders need to embrace a culture of dialogue in resolving the current dispute. According to the staunch BCH proponent, developers need to be more open about their funding needs while providing specific details relating to timelines.

Ver’s blog post advised Bitcoin Cash developers to adopt the workflow of fintech startups looking to attract venture capital funding. Rather than trying to push through obtrusive protocol changes, Ver enjoined BCH developers to create funding proposals and make them publicly available.

Another Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork on the Cards?

Despite Ver withdrawing support for the Bitcoin Cash miner tax, reports say the proposal still has sufficient backing for implementation come May 15, 2020. Miners and investors against the plan may be forced to fork the blockchain in protest.

Bitcoin Cash which is itself a hard fork of the Bitcoin blockchain has also undergone a series of subsequent hard forks. Internal disagreements among major figures like Bitmain’s Jihan Wu, billionaire Calvin Ayre, and self-proclaimed Bitcoin creator Craig Wright saw the latter two create the Bitcoin SV fork.

Back in 2019, Bitcoin Cash also underwent another hard fork — this time, a security upgrade to fix security bugs. As reported by BTCManager, the planned upgrade was not without serious hitches with the blockchain going down for several hours.