- has to have a client
- this costs nothing
- risks all his stake if the client is malicious
- this can be prevented with some forethought... which costs nothing
- risks his hardware if the client is not secured against malicious attacks
- risks his hardware? This is quite far-fetched and highly unlikely. It reminds me of the StuxNet virus, which made Iranian uranium-enrichment centrifuges spin until they burned themselves out. But I know of very few "malicious attacks" that can fry my home PC.
- has to pay the electricity bill
- this is a sunk cost. The forger already has an electricity bill, and as has been stated countless times, the cost of electricity for running a Nxt node is very low.
- has to pay for the hardware/renewal of such
- this is generally also a sunk cost, since people can forge on existing hardware... except for folks who have bought a Raspberry Pi: they're out $50. Anyone who has spent $5000 on a spiffy Nxt forging rig should be a little embarrassed.
- has to pay for a place that hardware can exist in
- This is also a sunk cost. You already have a place to exist in, which you generally share with your hardware. And your hardware isn't that big.
- has to pay for the bandwidth he contributes to the network
- This is also a sunk cost, since you already pay for bandwidth. And you can still forge if you don't advertise your node address, which minimizes bandwidth usage.
- has to implement security measures (attacks, heat etc.)
- "heat security"? I don't even know what that means. As for other security: most people already have an edge firewall protecting their local network. People who don't use any form of security for their home setup are far more exposed already, for their existing hardware (PCs, etc.). So we're at "sunk cost" again.
As your reply shows, you have no idea how precious time and other resources are and how computing works nowadays. Nothing of my previous points is far-fetched or completely impossible.
Furthermore, you just provide many relative arguments: of course forging is cheaper than mining. So what? Cheaper means not: no time, no hardware, no place etc. It still costs something. Compensation is therefore legit.
I said the other day and I'll say it again: Nxt is ultimately a low-level protocol. Like the pipes that run under the streets, it serves as a necessary foundation for everything built above it. What can be built is limitless, but in order for that limitlessness to exist, the foundation has to be simple.
Again? What's your point and what is the difference to what all we said already?
The current banking system enables us to do many things, too. It has flaws and I hope with NXT we create a system that has none of them but enables us to do the same things if not even more.
Btw. I like your analogy with the pipes. The infrastructure is NXT, of course. However, like in the real world how many companies support the pipes/cables/etc. underneath the ground? Very few, I guess. Most of them PAY for their maintenance.
Let me ask it right out: What exactly do you want to accomplish: no fees? low fees? different forging mechanism?