AlgoNumbers

Update on the status of the Project King Safety economic sustainability paper. The Foundation’s goal with the paper is to share thoughts on how to sustain staking rewards after January 2027, when the Foundation-provided rewards run out. The paper will explore both theoretical options for network sustainability – revenue (fees) and new token emissions for block proposers. In terms of fees, we explore both increasing transaction fees and building out an MEV capability. We know that there are a range of strong opinions in all three areas, and we have begun the process to collect feedback from the largest protocols building on our ecosystem, as they will be the most directly affected. We appreciate and have benefited from the many good-faith conversations we have had to date. We plan to release the recommendation paper in the next 30 to 60 days. Some additional notes: 1/ The challenge that we need to tackle is declining and uncertain staking rewards: stakers currently receive around 9.1 Algo per block, declining by a steep 1% every million blocks. Fees account for 0.05 Algo. If no action is taken, the rewards to stakers will drop to 0.05 Algo in January 2027. 2/ The original vision for Algorand was for the community to secure the network without the need for staking rewards, but that’s not what happened, and the Foundation ended up with 70% of the online stake. After introducing staking rewards, the total online stake is now almost 2B Algo, with the Foundation accounting for less than 20%. If the staking reward drops to 0.05 Algo, it is likely that overall network security will suffer. 3/ The Foundation welcomes good-faith community feedback and input on this paper, but the ultimate decision is in the hands of the staking community, as no proposals will be adopted unless the required protocol changes are approved by 90% of the online stake. 4/ Finally, there are longer-term questions that need to be answered, including how to fund core protocol development and create the right builder incentives. The Foundation believes that it is up to the community to self-organize around these topics and propose recommendations. The Foundation will support as needed.