1 - Allow the development team to (heaven forbid) pre-mine some coins for themselves, they get paid when they make them worth something
I am also coming to the conclusion that is the only way to do it because
all other ways appear to be illegal. And that was my original plan in 2014, but was told by everyone that premine was horrible. Yet I've come to realize that every project was premined, even Bitcoin and Monero. There was always some limited number of people who were mining with huge resources at the very start when the difficulty was miniscule.
Seigniorage is inevitable when one creates a monetary asset. It is considered "unfair" and can harm, as such, the monetary belief in the system, but seigniorage will always happen.
With fiat, the seigniorage goes to the government ('s buddies), and people scream "THIEF", but it is just a tax like any other.
Yeah thanks, let's discuss about monetary theory.
The seigniorage is the price we-the-society pay for there being confidence in the currency. For
without confidence, money has no value. This is a critical point that most people under appreciate, so it is very important that readers click that link and understand more deeply the linked thread in all its detail.
The problem with seigniorage is not the LOSS by society (your analysis is correct), but rather the *unmerited gain* of those obtaining seigniorage, and hence the economic power the obtain "for nothing".
It is not so much the fact that it costs you something, it is the nasty effect to see the other guy get rich without production of value.
Seigniorage is on the receiving side, not on the paying side. That a monetary asset network costs value is OK. But that this value gets in the hands of some is not OK. If it is destroyed, then that's OK. This is what is so brilliant about PoW.