coindesk.com
Programmable blockchain Solana has introduced a formal onchain governance system, its GitHub repository shows, giving its validators and token holders a direct, recorded vote on the network’s future for the first time.
The new system, called Solana Governance Proposals (SGPs), lets validators with at least 100,000 $SOL ($7.70 million) staked, or locked on the network, propose major directional changes to the network. Think of it like a big company suddenly handing real voting rights to its shareholders after years of letting only the board and executives call the shots.
Each proposal is a plain-language question about whether the network should pursue a given direction, and it is settled by a vote weighted by how much $SOL each participant has staked, with the tally recorded onchain and checked using a Merkle proof, a cryptographic method for confirming a vote belongs in the count without rerunning the whole tally.
The design neatly splits two questions that Solana had long handled together. An SGP, driven by the community and validators, asks the big picture question: "Should we do this?"
A separate, older track called a Solana Improvement Document, or SIMD, handles the follow-up: "Okay, how exactly do we do it?" – the technical details reviewed by the network’s core developers.
A yes on an SGP is a clear signal to proceed, with the engineering work that follows written up as one or more SIMDs.
The vote does not open automatically, however. A proposal has to first clear a support threshold of 15% of active stake before it moves to a ballot, a gate meant to keep the network from voting on matters few actually care about while letting core developers keep shipping routine changes without a referendum on each one.
Once that threshold is met, the process runs on a fixed schedule measured in epochs, the roughly two-day periods Solana uses to organize its operations.
To pass, a proposal needs a supermajority, at least two-thirds of the stake voting for or against it, with abstentions left out of the math. There is no minimum turnout requirement.
What really stands out is that the system gives more power directly to delegators – the everyday users who stake their $SOL with validators rather than running nodes themselves and collect staking rewards.