Would it be possible to track the number of non-mining transactions, and factor that into some kind of algorithm that would lower the block reward when transactions were high, and raise it when transactions were low? Within certain parameters, of course. Unbounded reward limits could lead to undesirable concentrations due to perfectly normal fluctuations in the amount of transactions that have occurred since the last adjustment.
So that the almost empty blocks will get most rewards? This will again benefit early miners.
Good point, I hadn't considered that.
Hope2907 partially addressed that:
you should let the first thousand blocks no rewards
Also, you would keep the reward between an upper and lower amount, so that even when transactions are very very low, you still aren't getting a billion coins per block.
Another thing to add to it would be to make the number that you apply to your block reward calculations be a ratio of transaction amounts to mined coins, and then in the beginning, all someone would have to do would be to pass a small amount of coins between two wallets to prevent the block reward from going up. And it should be a % change to the block reward rather than an amount of coins