TL; DR
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Here’s one of those “only in Web3” moments.
The SIMD-0096 proposal has just been approved.
(Sounds dry, but hear us out)!
As with classic payment processors (Stripe, Square, etc.), you usually pay a fee for crypto transactions.
For a blockchain like Solana, the normal fee is pretty cheap, but imagine if there was an NFT you really wanted, and there were thousands of other people transacting on Solana at the time?
In that case, there is a good chance that the network will become clogged and you will have to wait ages for the transaction to complete.
So instead of waiting at the back of the line, you can pay a “priority rate” to get you a Disneyland fast pass right at the front of the line.
With the SIMD-0096 proposal that was just approved (with 77.77% voting in favor), this means that Solana validators will receive 100% of those priority payments (up from 50%).
While an approval vote of 77.77% is high, it is not without controversy.
Previously, 50% of priority fees were sent directly to validators and the remaining 50% were burned (destroyed forever).
Those opposed to the proposal say it will make Solana more inflationary without the built-in combustion mechanism.
But some people are much wiser than us did the mathand it turns out it won’t have a big inflationary impact, if at all.
Anyway, how cool is it that the Solana community (the voters) could choose the path for how validators are rewarded?
Only in Web3.