1. At the recently concluded Web3 Summit, Polkadot founder @gavofyork made an astonishing statement:
"We spend $500 million a year maintaining security, but this model may not be worth it."
This expense accounts for 85% of the inflation issuance, almost entirely given to validators and nominators.
2. Most of this funding has been liquidated and flowed out of the ecosystem, and has not truly brought on-chain growth or activity.
Gavin's conclusion is clear:
"This is an unsustainable financial structure, we need a completely new security model."
His answer is: PoP (Proof of Personhood).
3. Polkadot was once famous for NPoS (Nominated Proof of Stake).
It achieved this after the mainnet launch in 2020:
✅ High-security operation without downtime
✅ Decentralized governance of validators
✅ Elastic scheduling for multi-chain concurrency
But it has gradually evolved into a system of 'buying security with capital'.
4. But the fundamental problem with NPoS is:
You must hold a lot of DOT to participate in securing the network, rather than because you have responsibility, reputation, or contribution.
Gavin calls this model:
"Over-reliance on capital, neglecting individual contributions and identity in the security mechanism."
5. For the short-term solution, he proposed reducing security expenditure from $500 million to $90 million, with specific measures including:
• Fixed salary for validators ($5k/month)
• Limit self-staking
• Introduce an inflation cap: total amount π×10⁹ DOT, halved every two years x.com/polkaworld_pro…
6. At the same time, we hope to establish a buffer fund in the short term to release incentives as needed.
Inflation issuance is no longer automatically distributed to validators, but first enters an intermediate fund pool, with governance deciding whether to allocate it.
"Whether to spend, and how to spend, is up to the community."
This will change the incentive logic from 'automatically distributing funds' to 'on-demand decision-making'.
7. Is the vision of 'extremely low block space cost' still there?
Gavin responded: "Of course, but it must be based on efficient network usage."
Currently, Core utilization is extremely low; we are not yet qualified to talk about zero cost.
The goal of the reform is: first cut spending, then explode, and finally reduce costs.
8. Medium-term direction: introduce PoP + Individuality, build an 'identity-driven' security model.
✅ Only real humans can participate
✅ Support for low-quality validators will be penalized
✅ Voting rights limited by PoP to prevent centralization
✅ staking ≠ rewards, but qualification
This is an anti-witch mechanism, and it is also a new governance paradigm.
9. In the medium to long term, to cooperate with this transformation, Polkadot will also:
• Introduce Core Disabling: turn off invalid blocks to avoid continuing to burn money
• (💥 Very significant!) Launch of native stablecoin payments: build internal funding circulation within the ecosystem, avoid selling off DOT for liquidity
"Security should not be a money-burning competition but a social contract."
10. Gavin's judgment is clear-headed:
"NPoS will not be abolished immediately, but it should not dominate Polkadot's security logic forever."
This reform is not about optimizing parameters but rewriting the underlying incentive logic of the system.
It challenges the entire blockchain industry's consensus that 'capital equals security'.
11. PoP, not just a simple identity verification system.
It is an institutional design attempt to return to 'individuality, fairness, and trust'.
It is a restructuring of the Web3 social contract, a deep reflection and reconstruction attempt by Polkadot after the decline of ideals in cryptographic technology.
12. Polkadot never hypes narratives or builds heat; it only 'rethinks' and quietly builds the underlying logic for the next era.
This time, it starts rewriting from the security mechanism.
Are you ready to join this paradigm shift? 🧠💥
——
by @polkaworld_pro
📝 Note: This article interprets Gavin's speech at the Web3 Summit; more details will be updated as the video is released.
Learn more in the latest article from PolkaWorld (Breaking! Gavin Wood drops another 'thought bomb': Cancel Staking security incentives!)
