Facing $TIA
"The shovel" that was previously neglected is once again a community opinion crisis. During a prolonged price decline and gradual marginal narrative, the revenues of the network #celestia continued to decline, and the feasibility of the DA path was questioned. Against this backdrop, its co-founder John Adler proposed a controversial governance proposal.
Abolishing staking, Celestia wants to overthrow "POS"
Co-founder John Adler recently proposed a controversial governance proposal, calling for the network to completely abandon the current proof of stake (PoS) mechanism and instead adopt a "proof of governance" (PoG) setup. This proposal immediately sparked a heated debate in the cryptocurrency community, directly addressing the fundamental concept of blockchain governance structure.
If the proposal is adopted, the Celestia network will undergo a series of restructurings: First, the issuance of token $TIA will be reduced by about 20 times, significantly curbing inflation in circulation, with a corresponding reduction rate reaching 95%. Second, existing staking delegation and liquid staking contracts will be fully abolished, and the on-chain governance mechanism will be terminated at the same time.
The new issuance of #TIA will be fully paid to validators as off-chain incentives to operate the nodes; validators will no longer be selected through token voting, but will be determined by off-chain governance mechanisms. Additionally, Celestia will adopt a fee-burning mechanism to reward token holders, where the daily protocol income of about $100 to $300 will be directly used to support the value of $TIA .
Adler even calls for the complete removal of the concept of "staking." He believes that in a scenario without token issuance rewards and without relying on staking votes to select validators, the act of "staking" becomes redundant, and thus LST loses its reason for existence, with TIA itself becoming a direct conduit for capturing value.
Adler's proposal primarily aims to resolve the inflationary pressure of the long-term decline in TIA's price by building a more scarce and cohesive economic model for tokens, thereby injecting a fundamental logic of long-term value for the network.
However, the proposal also challenges many assumptions considered "taken for granted" in the prevailing Ethereum consensus, such as whether the economic security of the blockchain truly depends on Slashing mechanisms, whether PoS is actually a "proof of authority" mechanism (a version of PoA), and whether blockchain systems can operate sustainably through a "governance-free profit model." If adopted, this proposal will not only restructure the economic model of Celestia but may also challenge the current staking governance logic dominated by Ethereum.
However, before this governance proposal aimed at "rebuilding the foundations of the token economy" is implemented, the community has consecutively revealed massive token sales by the Celestia team, resulting in divergent interpretations of the proposal's intentions. On one hand, the project asserts that the PoG setup could curb inflation, fix the token model, and restore market confidence; on the other hand, on-chain data shows that many core team members quickly completed large-scale liquidations after the cancellation window opened, with cumulative sales exceeding $100 million, raising market suspicions.
Is this contractionary reform really for the long-term value of TIA, or an institutional cover for the team's "sell the high"? With TIA's decline reaching 92% and user trust continuously eroding, the "stereotypical vision of Celestia" faces an unprecedented trust crisis.
In the face of various accusations and waves of public opinion surrounding Celestia, the founder of Celestia publicly stated that despite the increasing FUD in the current market, all founding members, early employees, and core engineers remain in service. He also revealed that Celestia currently has more than $100 million in cash reserves, with sufficient cash flow to support operations for over 6 years.
"To survive in this industry, every project must go through ups and downs. Almost all tokens will see a 95% drop during their lifecycle, and this is the norm, not the exception," Mustafa wrote in his tweet. Now, TIA has dropped 92% from its peak.