Y'all read the pull request, yes?
So: if you have a better suggestion for fixing the problem of new users wasting lots of time gathering tiny drips and drabs of bitcoins, and then getting upset when they can't spend them (because it costs more in fees that they are worth), I'm open to suggestions.
RE: "what about when bitcoins are worth a million dollars apiece"
Umm, that's what the "un-hardcode TX_FEE constants" part is all about?
RE: trolling about Foundation setting the fee:
Go back under your rock, please. This pull request is the first step towards a market between miners (who want higher fees) and merchants/users (who want lower fees, but also want their transactions confirmed). Miners can already control what fees they accept, this pull lets users control (very clumsily, improvements on the road map) the fee they are willing to pay.
He has a road map for future changes:
"Road map:
Re-implement the memory pool, and keep statistics on transactions that enter and then leave by being included in a block. Protect CTransaction::nMinFee/nMinRelayFee with a mutex, and modify those by that memory pool code.
So IsDust() will be based on what is actually being accepted into blocks, and will adjust appropriately.
Do the same for free transactions (estimate priority needed to get included in block).
Modify the RPC code to either send for free (if priority is high enough, based on estimate) or send with reasonable fee (based on fee estimate).
And modify GUI code to either just send for free or recommend sending with a fee."
