[URGENT] [DISCUSSION] Proposal to have fee-burning mechanism of EIP-1559 be more useful to society

[donjaz]

I’m really excited about EIP-1559. However, I have some significant concerns about the wastage associated with fee burning.

I think EIP-1559's burn mechanism can be useful to society. Right now, it's wasteful to burn the fees. Instead, what could be beneficial to both the Ethereum community and also helpful for society is to have the fees redistributed to charities or groups that need it.

For example, India right now is going through a huge medical supply crisis. India provided much of the pharmaceutical supply that served the Western countries during the COVID crisis but now they are not willing to reciprocate. Imagine if Ethereans as a group could step in. Obviously we can’t do anything at the moment because 1559 isn’t merged in, but imagine future situations like these, where we could help. We could reallocate those fees to the places in the world that need it!

Simply burning fees is an incredible waste of opportunity.

Many of us who believe in Ethereum as the social layer of the internet would want to help others in need. The fundamental trust layer. To have the fees simply go back to holders frankly is a breach of that trust. That's why I think the fee burn mechanism can be changed to allow this.

Instead of burning the fees, they can get sent to a DAO's smart contract that the entire Ethereum community would have the ability to vote on, which would then determine what aid the fees could go toward. I feel that we can make a huge difference the next time the State fails (which happens all too often these days). Imagine Ethereans helping the next Flint, Michigan, the next COVID crisis in India, the next Climate Change caused typhoon disaster. The world needs help, and Ethereans are here to help.

Please let me know next steps. Thank you for listening!

KC

cc: @vbuterin @econoar @Souptacular @timbeiko @AFDudley @mslipper @i-norden @abdelhamidbakhta

[github-actions]

Since this is your first issue, we kindly remind you to check out EIP-1 for guidance.

[MicahZoltu]

Trying to agree on how to allocate resources among this many people is a near impossible task. Ethereum has historically favored simple incentive alignment rather than trying to tackle governance spending.

[timbeiko]

+1 to Micah. Also worth noting fee burning is basically a "buyback" for existing ETH holders, which are free to allocate their ETH as they want. Nevertheless, this repo is definitely not the right place to have this discussion. EIP-1559 is already in testing stages towards being deployed. If you want to make such a proposal, I suggest creating a new EIP for it. It would also be helpful to gauge broader community sentiment beforehand. Could you please close this issue? Thanks!