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Solana turned on its formal onchain governance system so validators and the SOL holders who stake with them can now vote on the network’s direction. Any validator with at least 100,000 SOL staked, worth about $8 million, can open a proposal, and stakers can override how their validator votes.
What's the Scoop?
- The New System: Solana Governance Proposals, or SGPs, let qualifying validators ask the network whether Solana should pursue a specific direction. Each proposal is written in plain language, voting power is based on the amount of SOL staked, and the result is recorded onchain. Before the proposal goes to a full vote, it must also receive support from 15% of active stake.
- Two Separate Tracks: SGPs answer the broad question: should Solana pursue this direction? A separate process, called a Solana Improvement Document, or SIMD, handles the technical details of how the change would work. If an SGP passes, it signals that the engineering work should move forward and be written up through one or more SIMDs.
- How Proposals Pass: Once a proposal clears the 15% support threshold, voting runs on a fixed schedule measured in epochs, Solana’s roughly two-day operating periods. To pass, at least two-thirds of the total stake voting for or against must support the proposal.
- Staker Sovereignty: The system gives direct voting power to the SOL holders who delegate their stake to validators. A validator can vote on behalf of the stake delegated to it, but delegators are not locked into that vote. If they disagree, they can override the validator’s choice and vote directly with their own staked SOL. That means voting power ultimately stays with token holders, not only with the validators they delegate to.
