Overview
- The upgrade went live on October 30 after validators controlling at least 80% of staked tokens adopted nearcore v2.9.0 within the activation window.
- Annual issuance drops from roughly 5% to about 2.4%, cutting nearly 60 million new NEAR per year and lowering staking yields to around 4.5–4.75% assuming roughly half the supply is staked.
- An August on-chain poll backing the reduction drew 45.06% support, short of the two-thirds threshold required for formal approval.
- NEAR Chief Technology Officer Bowen Wang said validator approval at the consensus layer is the binding mechanism, characterizing the earlier poll as a signal.
- Staking provider Chorus One criticized the process and declined to upgrade its nodes, warning the approach undermines confidence in NEAR’s governance.