NEAR Foundation: Plans to halve inflation rate to 2.5% and increase rewards for small validators and veNEAR holders

ChainCatcher reported that the NEAR Foundation has announced its support for three community-proposed economic model upgrade proposals, aiming to optimize the token inflation structure, strengthen network decentralization, and incentivize governance participation.

The core content includes: 1: Inflation Halving Upgrade: The maximum annualized inflation rate of NEAR will be reduced from 5% to 2.5% to build a more sustainable token economic system. If 80% of block-producing validators support it, this upgrade will take effect. After the adjustment, with 50% of tokens staked, the annualized staking reward will remain at approximately 4.75%. 2: HSP-002 Validator Support Program: An annual budget of 100,000 NEAR will be set aside to subsidize small validators, preventing centralization risks caused by inflation cuts. The top 100 smallest and stably operating validators by staking volume are eligible to receive an additional 150 NEAR per quarter. 3: HSP-003 veNEAR Holder Reward Program: To promote participation in House of Stake governance, a three-month reward mechanism with a total budget of 280,682 NEAR has been established, which is expected to provide an additional annualized yield of 4%-4.5% for veNEAR holders participating in governance.

The NEAR Foundation stated that these proposals are intended to ensure the long-term security and economic health of the network, and to drive further expansion of NEAR in cross-chain liquidity and AI-driven on-chain economies. Currently, the House of Stake governance platform has been launched on the mainnet, and NEAR holders can participate in voting and governance discussions.