they could have hired Luke to code up a PR for a lot less than $5M ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Discussion
Or just give nostr:npub1ej493cmun8y9h3082spg5uvt63jgtewneve526g7e2urca2afrxqm3ndrm the full amount to propose and implement a soft fork to delay the subsidy schedule and spread it out over a thousand years.
That would move some of the energy consumption to the future where either we've dealt with climate change, it turned out not to be a problem, or we're already so deeply fucked it doesn't matter.
https://petertodd.org/2022/surprisingly-tail-emission-is-not-inflationary
Michael Saylor would probably chip in because it increases scarcity in the short run.
Implement? Whoa now, let's pump the brakes on that.
Oh I got implement and activate mixed up. Implement away. 👍
Writing code that people get angry about and never gets merged, just another day in Bitcoin Core :-)
In a software development context implement means "write code that does this". Outside of software development implement means " to make happen".
So "propose and implement a soft fork" can be read two different ways with two very different meanings.
This confusion is how we take their money :-)