In a significant development for the Solana blockchain community, Galaxy Research has put forward a new voting mechanism termed "Multiple Election Stake-Weight Aggregation (MESA)". This innovative approach aims to resolve ongoing discussions surrounding Solana's emissions curve, particularly concerning the community's prior attempt to address the inflation issues associated with SOL, Solana's native cryptocurrency.

The MESA proposal suggests a more nuanced voting system wherein validators can express varying levels of support across a spectrum of options, rather than limiting themselves to a simple binary choice of yes, no, or abstain. By allowing validators to vote on different rates of deflation, MESA seeks to identify a more representative consensus, especially concerning the critical question of how quickly SOL's inflation rate should decline.

If the necessary threshold for "yes" votes is met, MESA will then calculate the outcome based on a weighted average of the different rates associated with the affirmative votes. Instead of throwing darts until the community is happy with an individual proposal, it is more efficient to simply ask each person what they want and settle on the aggregate, stated Galaxy in their proposal, emphasizing the need for a process that reflects the community's diverse opinions rather than just a majority win.

This new voting model comes in the wake of the community's experience with the SIMD-228 proposal, which sought to implement a dynamic, deflationary emissions model aimed at regulating token issuance in accordance with staking participation. Despite an unprecedented turnout of voters, SIMD-228 ultimately did not succeed due to deeply polarized voting outcomes. Galaxy pointed out that the binary nature of the voting system did not effectively capture the community's nuanced views about the need to reduce SOL's inflation and the overpayment related to security.

In contrast to SIMD-228, the MESA proposal maintains the existing disinflationary curve, which is adjusted over time during each epoch, and is subject to scheduled annual reductions. As per data from Solana Compass, the current initial inflation rate for Solana is set at 8%, which is reduced by 15% annually, aiming for a sustainable target rate of 1.5%. Currently, Solana's inflation rate stands at 4.6%, with approximately 64.7% of the total supply actively staked.

However, the proposal has not been without its critics. Max Resnick, lead economist at Anza, a development firm focused on Solana, expressed concerns regarding MESA's potential to complicate the voting process. Suppose I believe the best policy is 25% a year How should I vote to make the resulting policy as close to 25% as possible? Resnick noted that while it is ideal for voters to express their preferences honestly, many participants might instead choose to predict the likely outcome and vote for more polarized options in order to sway the average in their favor.

Resnick advocates for a dynamic, market-driven approach to SOL issuance, similar to what SIMD-228 proposed, arguing that such a dynamic issuance curve would provide greater security during adverse conditions while being less burdensome during favorable times. Nevertheless, he acknowledged the benefit of MESA in providing voters with a broader range of options, which could foster less divisive outcomes in future community discussions. Yes/No voting forces people into separate camps which creates unproductive conversations, he commented, adding that the focus often shifts toward 'winning' a vote rather than contributing positively to the ongoing development of the Solana ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana Labs, suggested an alternative approach, proposing that the community consider adopting a median stake-weighted voting method instead of the weighted average outlined in MESA. This suggestion reflects a desire to further refine the voting process to accurately capture community sentiment.

This proposal and the discussions surrounding it are indicative of the evolving nature of governance within blockchain communities, particularly as they strive to balance the need for effective decision-making with the diverse perspectives of their stakeholders.

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor in The Block and also invests in various companies within the cryptocurrency space, including anchor LP for crypto exchange Bitget. The Block operates independently to provide objective and timely information about the cryptocurrency industry. For more details, please refer to our current financial disclosures.

© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as legal, tax, investment, or financial advice.