Galaxy Research Proposes Change to Solana Inflation Model

Galaxy Research has come up with a fresh proposal to fix a long-standing problem in Solana’s governance — the difficulty of agreeing on how to reduce inflation. The new model, introduced on April 17 and called “Multiple Election Stake-Weight Aggregation” (MESA), is meant to replace the current binary system where validators vote yes or no on changes.

The problem with that system is simple: even when most people agree that inflation should be lowered, they rarely agree on how much it should be lowered. That’s what happened with SIMD-228 — a previous proposal that had support in principle but failed to pass due to disagreement on the numbers.

MESA changes the voting process by allowing validators to choose from multiple deflation rate options rather than just a simple yes or no. The weight of each vote depends on how much SOL is staked. After the votes are cast, the system calculates a weighted average, which becomes the new deflation rate.

For example, if 5% of validators choose to keep the inflation rate as it is, 50% support a 30% reduction, and 45% back a 33% reduction, the final rate would be an average of 30.6%. This approach cuts down on multiple rounds of voting and gives a clearer picture of what the majority actually prefers.

Currently, Solana’s inflation starts at 8% and decreases by 15% per year until it hits a terminal rate of 1.5%. It’s currently sitting around 4.6%. Galaxy’s proposal doesn’t change the final target — it just gives the network a more practical way to get there.

Around 64.7% of the total SOL supply is currently staked, meaning the decisions made by validators truly impact the network. Galaxy Research isn’t advocating for a specific deflation rate but is instead focused on improving the process, so it reflects the actual preferences of validators instead of forcing a binary vote.

If this proposal is approved, it could help stabilize SOL’s supply, make emissions more predictable, and smooth out the governance process. With a simpler, weighted voting system, it could also restore confidence among investors and the wider Solana community.

Also Read: Galaxy Digital Deposits $80M of ETH to Binance and Coinbase