Miner protocol change dependencies

Dependencies between a selection of protocol changes related to storage utility and flexibility: reducing onboarding frictions, improving programmability, while maintaining safety and network revenue. Some proposals support or are required by some others.

This is not intending to be a complete list of protocol changes for consideration or prioritisation, just a view of some of them related to storage utility and safety.

graph TD
  DataPenalty -->|supports| TerminationFee[Simpler Termination Fees]
  DataPenalty[Data Termination Penalty] -->|required by| FreeCommD
  FreeCommD[Free CommD] -->|required by| DirectFIL+[Direct FIL+]
  FreeCommD -->|required by| ScalableFIL+[Scalable FIL+]
  FreeCommD -->|required by| DataApps

  CommDOnChain[CommD On Chain] -->|supports| DataApps[Data Applications]
  SyncActivation[Sync Activation] -->|required by| SectorEvents[Sector Events]
  SectorEvents  -->|supports| DataApps

  StorageFees[Storage Fees] -->|required by| GasLanes[Pseudo Gas Lanes]

Outcomes

Data termination penalty: write-up
- Data/deal assurance independent of built-in market.
Simpler Termination Fees: write-up
- Reduced SP costs and lender risks, reduced barriers to onboarding, simpler core.
Free CommD: write-up
- Flexible storage, data DAOs and storage apps, cheaper and more capable deals.
Direct FIL+
- FIL+ without overhead of a market
Scalable FIL+: FIPs #708
- Efficient FIL+ larger than one sector
Synchronous Activation: FIPs #689
- Removal of cron subsidy for single activations, potentially support SAAS.
CommD On Chain: FIPs #496
- Storage/data applications can inspect sector content.
Sector Events: write-up
- On-chain push events from onboarding to storage/data applications.
Storage Fees: FIPs #557 and #587
- Network revenue indexed to use of storage, independent of possible gas commoditization.
Pseudo Gas Lanes: HackMD, FIPs #679.
- Protect core storage operations from gas competition with apps. Support increasing FVM revenue without threatening storage.

Change	Direct beneficiaries	Impact	Work
Data termination penalty	SPs, Clients, Core Devs	Low (but a pre-req)	Low
Simpler termination fees	SPs, Core Devs	Med	Low/Med
Free CommD	SPs, Clients, FVM Devs, Core Devs	Med/High	Med/High
Direct FIL+	SPs, Clients	High/med	Med
Scalable FIL+	SPs, Clients	High/med	Med
CommD on chain	FVM Devs	Med long term	Low
Synchronous activation	Safety	Med short and long term	Low
Sector events	FVM Devs	Med long term	Med
Data applications	FVM Devs	High long term	Low
Proof fees	Holders, Core Devs	High long term	Med/High
Pseudo gas lanes	SPs, Clients (indirect)	High	Med

At best guess, none of these are super complicated changes, but they haven’t been designed in detail yet. Dragons may lurk.

Because miner API change is costly, we might try to make one API change that supports all the planed improvements at once, then deliver functionality incrementally.