Crypto research firm Galaxy Research has proposed a new governance framework called Multiple Election Stake-Weight Aggregation (MESA) to modernize how Solana’s inflation rate is decided, aiming to overcome the limitations of the current binary voting system.
Announced on April 17, the MESA proposal seeks to offer a more market-based approach to determining the future emission rate of Solana’s native token, SOL. Rather than a simple yes/no vote on individual proposals, MESA would allow validators to vote across multiple inflation or deflation scenarios, using the weighted average of votes to determine the final rate.
Why MESA? Solving the Binary Voting Problem
The concept of MESA arose after the failure of a prior governance proposal, SIMD-228, which attempted to move Solana’s inflation model from a fixed to a dynamic system. While the community largely supported reducing inflation, the binary nature of the vote failed to produce a clear consensus on specific rate changes.
Galaxy’s proposal outlines a better alternative. Instead of passing or rejecting single proposals in sequence, validators could allocate votes across a spectrum of inflation reduction options. If quorum is reached, the system calculates a weighted average of all the “yes” votes to set a new inflation path.
For instance, if:
- 5% vote for no change (i.e., maintaining a 15% deflation),
- 50% vote for a 30% deflation,
- 45% vote for a 33% deflation,
…the resulting outcome would be a 30.6% deflation rate, creating a more flexible and democratic model that reflects broad community sentiment.
A More Market-Driven Inflation Model
Currently, Solana’s inflation follows a fixed model, starting at 8% annually and decreasing by 15% each year until reaching a terminal rate of 1.5%. As of now, Solana’s inflation rate stands at 4.6%, with nearly 64.7% of the total SOL supply (387 million tokens) staked, according to Solana Compass.
The MESA proposal keeps the 1.5% terminal inflation rate intact but introduces a method to more organically transition the network based on actual validator preferences. Galaxy argues that this approach allows participants to express nuanced preferences rather than being restricted to binary outcomes — all while keeping long-term inflation predictable and stable.
Galaxy’s Role in the Solana Ecosystem
It’s worth noting that Galaxy Strategic Opportunities, an affiliate of Galaxy Research, currently provides staking and validation services for Solana, giving them firsthand insight into the network’s governance mechanics.
In their announcement, Galaxy clarified that they are not pushing for a particular inflation outcome, but rather proposing a better mechanism for reaching community consensus:
“Galaxy Research seeks to suggest a genuinely alternative process to achieving what we believe is the community’s broad goal.”
Conclusion:
If implemented, the MESA proposal could mark a transformative shift in how Solana governs its monetary policy, moving from rigid binary proposals to a flexible, market-responsive system that better reflects validator sentiment and promotes ecosystem stability.
