The tax is the best part of Solidcoin 2.0, it goes to a community fund which will pay for projects to keep Solidcoin growing and growing. Deciding where the taxes get spent is the part that most SolidCoin users are excited about.
This is an interesting idea, but ultimately flawed. It destroys the use of Solidcoin for small transactions. The same goes for a fixed rate transaction fee. These do not work in a deflationary environment. RealSolid claims that the fixed transaction is "floating", but this is a blatant lie. The fee is hard coded in the source. Another big problem is that there is no way to ensure that the tax will be used towards the interests of the users. RealSolid might just decide he wants to take the whole pie one day. The very aspect of a tax that goes to a specific set of individuals completely defeats the decentralized nature of the currency.
Whether or not you like RealSolid as a person, he's a skilled coder...
RealSolid has repeatedly demonstrated that he is not skilled at all. His first few releases were virtually untested and bug ridden. He implements large changes without serious thought or a test phase. He takes shortcuts in his code, and lies about its shortcomings. Solidcoin cannot be taken seriously with this kind of leadership.
...(Realsolid) seems to genuinely have the interests of the users of his coin at heart. Unlike the selfish motives of others who start coins purely so they can pre-mine at low difficulty at the beginning and keep the coins for themselves.
I believe that he has some interest of the users at heart, but I question how genuine it is, and how he will go about it. He also does not have the social skills required to get people behind him.
RealSolid is an egotistical and emotionally driven person. His sense of judgement and morals goes out the window when he is challenged. It is well known that I have been rude and critical to him both in the IRC channel, and the forum. I created the first SolidcoinFaucet. I was refused the bounty for the first faucet, and he never updated the website; instead he allowed other users to create faucets thinking they would be first and eligible for the bounty. RealSolid started stating that the shutdown of v1.04 was optional when I began questioning it. I stated in the forum that I wanted to opt to continue development of the old client, and asked that he release the source without any of his "special" license provisions. My post was promptly deleted, and my account banned.
Solidcoin v2.0 will be heavily premined, and will have a tax. If Solidcoin somehow really took off, I would not trust RealSolid to keep his hand out of the cookie jar.
