Solana has published the rules for a new network governance mechanism called Solana Governance Proposals (SGP). It will allow validators and delegators to decide whether a particular initiative should move forward if it involves long-term changes to the protocol. At the same time, the existing process for preparing technical upgrades will remain in place.
SGPs are designed to make decisions about the network’s overall direction rather than the technical details of implementation. If the community approves an initiative, developers can then begin preparing one or more Solana Improvement Documents (SIMDs), which will describe how the proposed changes will be implemented.
According to the authors of the initiative, this approach will make it possible to gather feedback from stakers before the technical specification has been fully developed.
The new procedure will not be mandatory for every proposed change. Before an initiative can be put to a vote, it must first gain support from participants controlling at least 15% of the active stake. If that threshold is not reached, the proposal will continue through the standard SIMD process without a separate vote.
Once the required level of support has been secured, the proposal enters a fixed multi-stage process that includes discussion, a stake distribution snapshot, and a voting period lasting three epochs. To pass, an initiative must receive at least a two-thirds majority of all votes cast either for or against it. Abstentions are not counted, and there is no minimum quorum requirement.
Only a validator with at least 100,000 SOL staked to it can submit an SGP. Once published, a proposal is locked and cannot be modified, meaning that any corrections or additions will require a new document to be submitted.
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