Objections to commutalism

For goods where the reduction coefficient exceeds 30 %, two complementary locks can be activated by sector decree:

• Monthly quotas by category: the EUDIW wallet links each maximum-discount purchase to a monthly "category credit" (e.g. 1 major appliance, 2 long-haul flights). The quota does not affect the price beyond the threshold — it only prevents repeated identical purchases at −50 % within a rolling time window.
• Non-transferable receipt tied to identity: the ZKP proof encodes, in addition to the coefficient, a transaction nonce — a unique, non-reusable cryptographic identifier. The merchant never sees the identity but can verify locally that this receipt has not been used for the same item within 30 days.

These mechanisms are optional, activated only for categories with a proven arbitrage risk (high-value electronics, new vehicles, rental properties). The everyday circuit remains quota-free and untracked.

The protocol relies on zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) of the zk-SNARK or Bulletproof type:

1. Commitment: the tax authority periodically publishes a digitally-signed cryptographic commitment (hash of the income bracket) in the EUDIW wallet, valid for a defined fiscal period.
2. Local proof: at checkout, the wallet locally generates a ZKP proving only that "the coefficient belongs to range [a, b]". No exact value is disclosed. The computation takes milliseconds on the device.
3. Offline verification: the merchant terminal verifies the proof with the tax authority's public key. Verification is deterministic and offline — no central server consulted. If valid, the coefficient is applied.

This architecture mirrors verifiable e-voting systems and private digital currency protocols (e.g. Zcash). It is compatible with eIDAS 2.0 standards.

The equalisation fund is financed by 2 % of total economic turnover (= 40 % × 5 % turnover levy). For France, this represents approximately €100 billion/year against estimated business turnover of €5,000bn.

• Fund feeding: at each transaction, 40 % of the 5 % levy charged to the merchant is paid into the regional fund corresponding to the merchant's location.
• Redistribution criteria: monthly transfers are calculated using a composite deprivation index (area median income, unemployment rate, proportion of low-income customers). A commerce in a zone with median €1,200/month receives a higher subsidy than one in a €2,400/month zone.
• Break-even guarantee: where a merchant's weighted average customer income falls below 80 % of the regional median, the fund guarantees positive net margin. Concretely: the fund pays the gap between average floor price received and declared cost price, up to a sector ceiling.

The full fund model (index calculation rules, sector ceilings, anti-concentration mechanism) is an active workstream. The parameters above are provisional proposals, not final values.

In practice, the vast majority of significant wealth generates income that is already in the base:

• Landlord: rental income is declared to the tax authority (property income). It is integrated automatically. A landlord with 3 rented apartments declares far more than €800/month — their real coefficient is high.
• Shareholder: dividends and capital gains are taxable (Flat Tax 30 % or income scale). They enter the base. A CEO-shareholder cannot declare "zero income".
• Retired homeowner (non-renting): this is the real blind spot. A €800/month pension with an unrented primary residence does yield a modest coefficient. The optional wealth variable (imputed rent) is the proposed answer.

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