Proposal: Setting a 5% Minimum Validator Commission Fee for Polkadot
With the enactment of the governance proposal to reduce Polkadot's inflation rate to 120 million DOT per year and the recent increase in the validator set size from 297 to 500, we believe we should consider setting a minimum validator commission fee for Polkadot. This proposal aims to ensure the sustainability of smaller validator operators, maintain decentralization, and meet the growing hardware and operational requirements as Polkadot scales.
Motivation Validator profitability has been significantly impacted by:
<ul>
<li>Increased Validator Set: The expansion to 500 validators has diluted rewards.</li>
<li>Reduced Inflation: The reduction to 120 million DOT per year has further lowered overall staking rewards.</li>
<li>Increased Costs: New hardware requirements for running a validator, particularly with the upcoming JAM upgrade, have dramatically increased the costs of operation.</li>
</ul>
The average validator currently earns significantly less than a year ago, while the costs of running a validator are increasing due to:
<ins>Higher hardware standards:</ins>
<ol>
<li>CPU: Intel Ice Lake/AMD Zen 3 with 8 physical cores @ 3.4GHz.</li>
<li>Storage: 1 TB NVMe SSDs with mirror redundancy.</li>
<li>Memory: 32 GB DDR4 ECC.</li>
<li>Network: Minimum 500 Mbit/s symmetric speed.</li>
</ol>
<ins>Database size:</ins> Polkadot blockchain expands by over 500 MB daily, with a pruned database exceeding 500 GB (<a href="https://stakeworld.io/docs/dbsize">StakeWorld Database Size Analysis</a>). This limits the capacity to run multiple validators on a single machine, with most hosting providers limiting storage capacity to mirrored 1tb NVME&rsquo;s.
<ins>Revenue Decline:</ins> A year ago, 1% commission earned ~13.8 DOT per era. Currently, 1% commission earns ~6 DOT per era&mdash;a 56% reduction. At the average commission rate of 3.6% (excluding private 100% commission validators), a validator earns 21.6 DOT per era ($125.28 at $5.8/DOT) compared to 49.68 DOT per era ($288.14) previously. These dynamics create unsustainable conditions for smaller operators, discouraging new entrants and increasing reliance on large staking providers.
Proposal Introduce a Minimum Commission Fee of 5% for Polkadot Validators. This aligns with Kusama&rsquo;s existing practice, ensuring validator operators can cover operational expenses and reinvest in hardware and infrastructure while preserving network decentralization.
Benefits of a Minimum Commission Fee
<ins>Decentralization:</ins>
<ul>
<li>Encourages diverse participation by smaller operators.</li>
<li>Reduces dominance of large staking providers that can subsidize lower commissions.</li>
</ul>
<ins>Economic Sustainability:</ins>
<ul>
<li>Allows validators to meet the increasing operational costs.</li>
<li>Provides incentives for new operators to join the network, ensuring long-term validator diversity. It can take months for a new validator to gain enough nominations to get active.</li>
</ul>
<ins>Parity with Kusama:</ins>
<ul>
<li>Establishing a 5% minimum commission aligns Polkadot with Kusama&rsquo;s proven approach.</li>
</ul>
<ins>Security and Performance:</ins>
<ul>
<li>Ensures validators can afford high-quality hardware, enhancing network reliability.</li>
</ul>
 * Please note that the main intent for this proposal is to gather feedback and get the discussion started.

**Proposal: Setting a 5% Minimum Validator Commission Fee for Polkadot**

With the enactment of the governance proposal to reduce Polkadot's inflation rate to 120 million DOT per year and the recent increase in the validator set size from 297 to 500, we believe we should consider setting a minimum validator commission fee for Polkadot. This proposal aims to ensure the sustainability of smaller validator operators, maintain decentralization, and meet the growing hardware and operational requirements as Polkadot scales.

**Motivation** Validator profitability has been significantly impacted by:

*   Increased Validator Set: The expansion to 500 validators has diluted rewards.
*   Reduced Inflation: The reduction to 120 million DOT per year has further lowered overall staking rewards.
*   Increased Costs: New hardware requirements for running a validator, particularly with the upcoming JAM upgrade, have dramatically increased the costs of operation.

The average validator currently earns significantly less than a year ago, while the costs of running a validator are increasing due to:

Higher hardware standards:

1.  CPU: Intel Ice Lake/AMD Zen 3 with 8 physical cores @ 3.4GHz.
2.  Storage: 1 TB NVMe SSDs with mirror redundancy.
3.  Memory: 32 GB DDR4 ECC.
4.  Network: Minimum 500 Mbit/s symmetric speed.

Database size: Polkadot blockchain expands by over 500 MB daily, with a pruned database exceeding 500 GB ([StakeWorld Database Size Analysis](https://stakeworld.io/docs/dbsize)). This limits the capacity to run multiple validators on a single machine, with most hosting providers limiting storage capacity to mirrored 1tb NVME’s.

Revenue Decline: A year ago, 1% commission earned ~13.8 DOT per era. Currently, 1% commission earns ~6 DOT per era—**a 56% reduction**. At the average commission rate of 3.6% (excluding private 100% commission validators), a validator earns 21.6 DOT per era ($125.28 at $5.8/DOT) compared to 49.68 DOT per era ($288.14) previously. These dynamics create unsustainable conditions for smaller operators, discouraging new entrants and increasing reliance on large staking providers.

**Proposal** Introduce a Minimum Commission Fee of 5% for Polkadot Validators. This aligns with Kusama’s existing practice, ensuring validator operators can cover operational expenses and reinvest in hardware and infrastructure while preserving network decentralization.

**Benefits of a Minimum Commission Fee**

Decentralization:

*   Encourages diverse participation by smaller operators.
*   Reduces dominance of large staking providers that can subsidize lower commissions.

Economic Sustainability:

*   Allows validators to meet the increasing operational costs.
*   Provides incentives for new operators to join the network, ensuring long-term validator diversity. It can take months for a new validator to gain enough nominations to get active.

Parity with Kusama:

*   Establishing a 5% minimum commission aligns Polkadot with Kusama’s proven approach.

Security and Performance:

*   Ensures validators can afford high-quality hardware, enhancing network reliability.

  
_\* Please note that the main intent for this proposal is to gather feedback and get the discussion started.  
_

Make some on-chain remark.

Can be executed by every `origin`.

- **Problem Statement:** Implementing a 5% minimum validator commission fee for Polkadot to address reduced profitability for validators due to increased costs and decreased rewards.
- **Significance:** The proposal aims to sustain smaller validator operators, maintain decentralization, and meet growing hardware and operational requirements as Polkadot scales.
- **Proposed Solution:** Introduce a 5% minimum commission fee for Polkadot validators to cover operational expenses and encourage network diversity.
- **Expected Outcomes:** Enhanced decentralization, economic sustainability for validators, alignment with Kusama's practices, and improved security and performance for the network.

#1307 Set a 5% Minimum Validator Commission Fee for Polkadot

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