TLDR: I think nullsec alliances monopolizing hisec markets and collecting a ton of tax income with no way to compete is bad, so I’m throwing isk at a constant stream of Azbels to provide tax-free public access structures available to all that cannot be countered. See the full Oz Tank pitch here: https://youtu.be/5ZQ05E0rDpQ?si=3h9Xbu1R-sOYk6Lc&t=6386
NOTE: You do NOT need to be IN a structure to place buy orders there and take advantage of lower taxes. You can sit comfy in jita. Just click the ‘place buy order’ button, and then click the location option. Type in “0% Golden Path” and select the structure. Just set your buy order distance to 1-jump to also cover Jita and now you’re good to go.
Further discussion on Oz_EvE’s discord in the zero-tax-market channel: Discord
Announcing the Perpetual Free Market System
This project will run until either the TTC sotiyos return to 0% added market tax, are destroyed by third parties, or the TTC stops destroying any competing structures.
For years now, the main hisec player markets have been controlled by massive nullsec groups. First with the TTT, and even after GoonSwarm left the agreement and the TTT was destroyed, Horde and Fraternity continue to operate the market from the perimeter Sotiyo, meanwhile paying mercenaries to destroy any other player markets and ensure there is no competition.
This allows these groups to bring in enormous amounts of ISK for themselves whilst no one else is able to compete, and also stripping players of the opportunity to use a true minimum tax market. Instead having to either cough up the extra tax to these groups or stick with the higher tax Jita 4-4 station itself.
It is my belief that players should have access to a minimum tax market, and that the current monopoly which pumps money to already wealthy groups is bad for the health of the game as a whole.
Therefore, I am announcing the ‘Golden Path’ Perpetual Free Market System. And with additional funding from Oz_EvE and Croda thanks to the OzTank show, this project will put our own wealth where our mouth is and work to ensure that both of the above goals are met.
This project will run until another 0% market becomes available in Perimeter, either from an agreement being formed to keep one of these 0% structures up permanently, TTC Sotiyos returning to 0% tax, or a different entity successfully operating a 0% market structure.
An open letter to Horde, Fraternity, Goonswarm, Blackflag, and all other interested parties:
This project is not meant to antagonise. GoonSwarm was a member of the TTC agreement for a long time because when an advantage like that exists, it would be incredibly stupid to stand back and let your opponents take sole advantage of it.
Similarly right now, Horde and FRT continue to operate the TTC because standing back and letting Goons or another group gain a financial advantage would be stupid.
Therefore I ask: Instead of trying to agree on who SHOULD have it, and in doing so taking isk from all those trading in these markets, simply come together to agree that it’s better for the entire game if NO ONE has it.
Back this project, not with isk, but with a pledge to support a neutral free market that will NEVER collect any sort of tax revenue and will serve as a public utility for all players.
Pledge not to attempt to control the monopoly, and rather to fight against anyone who would seek to control this area for their own financial gain.
What is the system?
-
A market azbel will be dropped in The Forge, a list of current available market structures can be found in the bio of the character ‘Golden CEO’
-
This azbel will be open to all players, and will have all services including market, clones, offices set to 1 isk or minimum tax.
-
Should this azbel be attacked, another will be dropped immediately under a new corp, and onlined before services on the previous structure are disabled.
-
This process will repeat indefinitely, ensuring that no matter how often or consistently the azbels are attacked, there will ALWAYS be at least one structure up and running available for players to use. Mercs could kill one every 48 hours and still one will always be up and running.
-
This will continue until such time as the TTC structures are returned to the minimum tax allowed by the game, or until an agreement is reached with necessary groups to ensure long term survival of a single structure. (At which point additional services such as Industry will also be provided with 0% tax, currently industry is not feasible in a shorter lifespan structure)
-
Sizeable bounty rewards will be available to players/groups that are successful in killing the war HQ of any groups aggressing Golden Path Market structures. Or groups that provide effective defense services.
-
A bounty will be available to anyone able to scoop and return the quantum core from a structure, OR, successfully kill a ship/container to prevent it from dropping and being scooped by attackers. (ie: you do not need to GET the core, just prevent it from falling into the hands of those killing the structure)
Q&A:
Q: Why are you doing this?
A: Because I have a significant amount of ISK and there’s not much point just watching number go up forever. I want to use my ISK to benefit other players, hence why I’m also an investor on the Oz Tank show, giving funding to projects I think are worthwhile. This is just the only solution I can see to the hisec market issue and so whilst terribly inefficient and I wish there were a better solution, I don’t think there is one right now. So here we go.
Q: Why not just hire mercenaries yourself?
A: Blackflag is currently under contract with Vily/Horde/Fraternity. Should this situation change, or if any other groups would be interested in providing defense services and/or attacking structures that are taxing players in perimeter/the forge please do send an email to Golden CEO.
Q: Lol I’m gonna kill your structures
A: That’s kinda the plan. Wouldn’t need this system if the structure would remain up indefinitely. I’ve planned for replacing a structure every 24-48hrs.
Q: Aren’t you just going to be feeding a bunch of azbels?
A: I could not possibly care less about killboards especially when there is a material benefit to be gained from NOT caring about them. I’d rather have a red killboard and be providing something useful to players than keeping my killboard green and doing nothing.
Q: If these structures are only going to last a few days each, who is going to use them?
A: The vast majority of the TTC’s income is from tax collected on trading of PLEX, Skill Injectors, and Skill Extractors. These are also items that move extremely fast and if you trade them regularly you’ll know that having orders last more than a day is quite rare unless you’re way off the going price. Therefore even shorter lived markets will still be very effective in pulling income from trading of these items away from the TTC and keeping it in players wallets. It is my hope that an agreement can be reached to keep a 0% tax market up long term and then it will be much more viable for trading any items (and they could then also provide tax free industry services), but for now, I think the lifespan of the structures will not be much of an issue for trade of these primary items. As someone that trades a significant volume of these items myself, I’d certainly choose even a 0.1% advantage cause I know my orders won’t be up more than a few hrs.
Q: This is cool! How can I help/contribute?
A: If you’d like to contribute, anyone who donates an Azbel Core will get to name the next market structure. A running total of donators/contributors will also be kept in the bio of the structures and structure holding corps. Any assistance from a military perspective is also very welcome and bounties are available to anyone who provides a meaningful defense effort against attackers, scoops and returns (OR destroys so that it does not drop) the core from a dead structure, or destroys the war HQ of aggressors.
Q: Aren’t you going to run out of isk eventually?
A: Nope, I have a large stockpile of Azbels already, and plenty enough ISK to continue, I will quite literally just keep doing this for the next few years if needed. I don’t need trillions to sit in my wallet watching number go up. I would rather put it to good use for the benefit of many. Obviously I would PREFER that the situation changes and this project is no longer needed (or as mentioned, a single structure can remain up with the support of other groups and provide additional services to players, I’d love to provide a 0% tax industry facility too), but the whole point of this is that I can just throw ISK at this indefinitely to ensure that players have a 0% tax market at all times, and nullblocs can’t keep a monopoly no matter how big they are. I can online stuff faster than they can kill them.
Q: What would cause you to stop this project?
A: The only real measure of success/failure for this is whether people use them.
If these markets continue to see a good amount of use, I’ll keep doing it. I’ll only stop if it’s not actually providing a benefit. There may be temporary downtimes if I’m away and unable to drop replacements but these will only last a few days.
Special Thanks
A particular thank you to Oz_EvE and Croda for their generous support toward this project. You can watch the OzTank episode where this was pitched here (link).
“This wise man observed that wealth is a tool of freedom. But the pursuit of wealth is the way to slavery.”
- Leto Atreides II
.