Solana launches an on-chain governance mechanism, SGP: Only validators with more than 100,000 SOL can initiate proposals.

Solana infrastructure today officially launched the on-chain governance mechanism SGP, allowing validators to submit and vote on core protocol decisions. Proposals must receive at least 15% of total staked support before entering the formal voting phase.

(Previous report: Taiko DAO launches on-chain governance, appoints former Binance executive, Harvard professor, and 2 other directors to strengthen decentralization) (Background supplement: Solana caught in "short-term celebrity token frenzy"? ANSEM market cap exceeds $160 million, but deployers are the real winners)

Table of Contents

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• SGP Operating Mechanism
• Significance of the 15% Staking Threshold
• From SIMD to SGP: Clear Division of Governance Roles

The Solana Foundation officially launched the on-chain governance mechanism Solana Governance Proposals (SGP) on July 2. Validators can now submit, support, and decide on core protocol decisions through SGP. Solana officially announced on platform X that all proposals are conducted on-chain, using a staking-weighted voting mechanism verified by Merkle proofs.

SGP Operating Mechanism

Any validator with at least 100k SOL delegated can initiate an SGP proposal. Unlike Solana Improvement Documents (SIMD), which focus on technical and protocol changes, SGP is primarily used for expressing ecosystem governance opinions, not for underlying protocol upgrades.

The proposal process consists of two phases:

• Sponsorship Phase: Proposals must first receive at least 15% of total staked support to enter formal voting
• Voting Phase: Proposals that pass the sponsorship threshold proceed to on-chain voting, where validators vote based on staking weight

Significance of the 15% Staking Threshold

The 15% total staking threshold is one of the core designs of SGP. Solana's current total staked amount is approximately 45 million SOL (about 54% of total supply), meaning a proposal requires roughly 675k SOL in staked support to enter the voting phase. This threshold ensures:

• Prevents fragmented proposals from clogging the governance process
• Only issues representing the majority of token holders' opinions enter formal voting
• Validators are incentivized to conduct community discussions before initiating formal proposals

From SIMD to SGP: Clear Division of Governance Roles

Solana's existing SIMD (Solana Improvement Documents) primarily handles technical aspects and protocol changes, similar to Ethereum's EIP. The introduction of SGP separates "technical upgrades" from "ecosystem governance," allowing validators to focus more on:

• Ecosystem fund allocation
• Validator network parameter adjustments
• Partnership and collaboration decisions
• Evolution of governance rules themselves

This move also aligns with the expansion trend of the Solana ecosystem — recently, Flash tokenized stock SNDK launched on Solana, with on-chain trading volume exceeding $70 million within a week. Prediction market platform World also launched on Solana, and Forward Industries increased its holdings by over 500k SOL in Q3, raising total holdings to 7.55 million SOL. As the ecosystem grows, upgrading governance mechanisms is the inevitable next step.