Solana Proposal

On Monday the 27th of May 2024 it was revealed that Solana validators will receive a little more SOL tokens going forward following the successful passing of a governance proposal to give them 100% of priority fees. The vote saw 77% in favour of the proposal and will aim to cut out previous potential 'side deal transactions' between validators and submitters as the old format saw priority fees split between burning and rewarding validators.

Validators are important participants in a blockchain network given their role in confirming transactions via software they run, along with adding security to the network. The priority fees are additional fees users can pay to increase the likelihood of their transactions being processed quicker by the network. Previously, as noted above, half of the fees in a priority transaction were erased while the other half went to the validators. The 'side deals' created between transaction submitters and validators were being done so validators could gain more SOL, but this proposal ensures all the priority fees will now go to validators. This will also help to ensure validators are more focused on keeping the network safe and running smoothly.