Why are there transaction fees?

#1

Block reward is 60 grin forever. Why is this not enough to secure the network forever? Correct me if I’m wrong, the argument for a constant block reward is to secure the network. If this is one of the main arguments, what are transaction fees for? Fees can function as a bid to be included in a block. However, this can remain as the main function, but what if that’s not needed?

What would happen to the network if transaction fees were removed, and block reward was the only function to securing the network?

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#2

Miners would be submitting empty blocks because it is simpler

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#3

And spammers would submit millions of useless txs just to bloat the chain.

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#4

I see.

Though, miners could be required to include transactions as part of consensus. We can think about models to solve some of the concerns there.

Fee as a spam measure: I wonder if there are other ways to solve this problem.

The motivation behind my questioning is to omit tx fees in favor of tax. Coinbase or emissions is the form of automated taxation.

Something like EIP-1559 is close to this motivation, but the tx tip adds incentive to reorder transactions. Should some model be conceptualized that incentivized miners to follow tx order by which tx are observed, that would be fantastic. If miners were incentivized to fill up a block, they would do so as quickly as possible, and this means using the first valid tx observed.

#5

Hathor works successfully without.