Recently Jiang Zhuoer of BTC.TOP announced the intention to create an Infrastructure Funding Plan (IFP) for Bitcoin Cash. This plan set off much discussion and debate within the Bitcoin Cash community. Some parties were opposed to the very concept of miner funding. Others were supportive of the intent of the plan, but had issues with different details of how it would be implemented.

In the subsequent weeks Bitcoin ABC has been monitoring community discussion closely, and communicating with Jiang Zhuoer and others in the mining space. As a result of community feedback, an updated Infrastructure Funding Plan has been created. The new plan addresses several of the major concerns expressed over the last few weeks. Bitcoin ABC has been requested to implement this plan in the node software, and as such will be including this implementation in the upcoming 0.21.0 release.

The updated IFP differs from the original in the following ways:

  • The plan will only go into effect if triggered by miners via BIP 9.
  • The amount is reduced to 5% of block reward.
  • The funds can go to more than one project, and can go to one of several in a whitelist.

The whitelist of possible projects was selected according to the following criteria:

  • Must be common infrastructure, things that different products build on top of.
  • The project must provide a “Public Good”.
  • The project must use open source software licenses compatible with other projects in the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem.
  • The plan should prioritize projects that are in need of money.

By applying these selection criteria, a whitelist was arrived at consisting of addresses for a General Fund, Bitcoin ABC, Electron Cash, and BCHD.

As a project, Bitcoin ABC believes that stable funding of Bitcoin Cash software infrastructure is vital to the success of the project. While we recognize that some aspects of this plan have been controversial, we believe that overall the benefits of the plan create the potential for a very exciting future in which Bitcoin Cash can grow and compete, and can reach its goal of becoming the best money the world has ever seen.

We would like to thank Jiang Zhuoer and other members of the mining community who have shown their desire to support Bitcoin Cash development. We are optimistic this plan will be a great success.