Solana stakers get a new way to force the next SOL inflation fight

An important story is making waves across the blockchain ecosystem. Solana just gave delegators a new governance tool called Solana Governance Proposals (SGP), which hands them a lever for the next round of the inflation fight. The proposing validator’s vote account must have at least 100,000 SOL staked, worth about $7. To advance from proposal to vote, validators representing 15% of Solana’s active stake must support it.

1 million SOL in active stake, that threshold is roughly 64. 2 million SOL, worth close to $5 billion. By default, a validator votes with the SOL delegated to its vote account, but a delegator can deviate from that default and vote independently.

Market Dynamics

Take a validator vote account with 1,000 SOL in stake, including 800 SOL delegated by a single staker. If that delegator submits an independent vote, the 800 SOL moves out of the validator’s tally and into whatever the delegator chose: For, Against, or Abstain, leaving the validator with just 200 SOL of effective weight. Multiply that across custodians, stake pools, and exchanges holding SOL on behalf of thousands of depositors, and a validator's assumed voting bloc can end up far smaller than its delegated total.

A proposal passes only if ‘For' votes represent at least two-thirds of the stake that votes either ‘For' or ‘Against. ' Abstentions are excluded from that calculation, and there is no separate quorum requirement. A five-step diagram outlines Solana's new governance process, showing how delegators can override validator votes before a proposal passes.

The SIMD-0228 precedent That 66% bar is where the last major inflation fight fell short: Multicoin Capital's Tushar Jain and Vishal Kankani authored SIMD-0228, proposing to tie SOL issuance to staking participation and to cut emissions once the network reached a well-secured level. 39% approval against a 66. 67% requirement, even as roughly 74% of staked SOL weighed in, a turnout that ruled out any low-stakes formality.

Market Impact

Validators staking 500,000 SOL or less voted against SIMD-0228 over 60% of the time, while larger operators leaned the other way. Treating the SIMD-0228 result as 100 units of decisive stake, split 61. 61 Against: flipping just 5.

28 of those points from Against to For clears 66%. 92 points as abstain does the same job, since abstentions drop out of the denominator entirely. Bringing in fresh stake that never voted at all takes more, about 15.

84 new For units for every 100 old ones. Flip Against to For Some prior Against stake becomes For 5. 28 points Smallest swing needed Move Against to Abstain Some Against stake exits the denominator 7.

Crypto markets are watching this development closely as investors weigh its potential impact on prices.