Final Vote Results Show 99.7% In Favor of Issuance Reduction

After a month long vote on what to do regarding ethereum’s block reward levels, the results are in, with 150,821.4 eth, worth about $42 million, voting for a reduction to 2eth per block or one eth. Only 348.7 eth, or about $96,000, have voted to maintain issuance where it is or even to increase it to 5eth per block.

◊41,938.5 ($11.5 million) have voted in favor of reducing issuance to ◊2 per block while ◊108,882.9 ($30 million) are of the view it should be reduced to just one eth per block.

Only 170 addresses have voted, with 129 of them voting in favor of 1eth per block. That has led to some criticism of low turn-out, but that such vote was taking place has been well publicized with it even mentioned at eth devs meeting calls.

Making it somewhat curious that miners appear to have not voted at a significant level to maintain issuance at 3eth, presumably either because they insta-sell their eth for fiat, so they don’t have any to vote with, or maybe because they have perhaps actually voted for a reduction.

A statement by Ethermine read out at a dev call said their miners had a variety of views regarding issuance, with some wanting it to be reduced to 2eth, some to 1, and some preferring it remains unchanged.

That could be perhaps because those that mine on Ethermine are small miners and/or are also eth holders, but it could also be because from a miner’s point of view, the amount of eth might not matter as much as price.

If, therefore, issuance is reduced to one eth and price rises to $900, then miners would be receiving more in fiat than the current 3 eth at a price of $275 or $825 in total.

Which suggests the matter needs not be contentious as far as miners are concerned, but big miners might have different views with Brian Venturo, who runs a GPU mining farm, proposing issuance remains at the same level save for a small reduction through uncles rewards.

Vitalik Buterin finally made a comment on the matter, shooting down Venturo’s proposal. So it is probable tomorrow’s dev meeting, which is mainly focused on issuance, may reach a general agreement to either reduce it to 2eth or 1eth.

It could, of course, be 1.5 eth or 1.25 with eth devs’ maths skills undoubtedly capable of dealing with non whole numbers, but whether it should be 2 or 1 isn’t a very easy choice.

That’s because there appears to be general agreement that it should be reduced to 2, but plenty seem to want it to be reduced to 1, with no easy way of deciding just which should it be.

Where security is concerned, there is evidence both would probably be fine although 1eth might slightly be pushing it. So the easiest decision here may well be 2 since all agree on that one.

It may however also depend on what Casper’s issuance will be. If the combined issuance for stakers and miners will remain the stated circa ◊0.8, then ◊2 or ◊1.75 might make sense with another halving to look forward to. If, on the other hand, it will be just ◊0.22 eth as it might turn out to be full Casper rather than a hybrid, then perhaps ◊1 or ◊1.25 might make sense.

In the absence of fully knowing, that might suggest perhaps a proper halving to ◊1.5 might make sense, with it then halved again to ◊0.8 once Casper or reduced even more to ◊0.22 if it turns out to be full Casper or when full Casper launches.

How the livestreamed meeting will go, however, remains to be seen, but all have now made their views clear with there appearing to be a general consensus for at least 2eth, which includes even miners who have now proposed 2.7eth.

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