Aptos is making waves as a community member recently submitted a proposal on April 18 to slash the staking rewards nearly by almost 50%. The plan submitted by the member, MoonSheisty suggests lowering the rewards from 7% to 3.79% over the next three months.
The plan aims to align Aptos with other Layer-1 blockchains and boost its capital efficiency. Although the proposal sparked discussions on X, the initial feedbacks on GitHub indicated some hesitation from the community.
The proposal suggests that Aptos should create a community validator program to give grants and staking opportunities to the smaller validators who contribute to the ecosystem. Notably, according to data from Defilama, Aptos currently has a total value locked of $974 million as of April 18, where about $320 million comes from the lending protocol Aries Markets.
However, ElagabalxNode, a community member noted that reducing the staking rewards without ‘compensatory mechanisms’ like a strong delegation program could drive away the smaller validators out of the network. This could impact Aptos blockchain’s decentralisation and its ability to stay strong in the long run.
MoonSheisty claims that high staking rewards could prevent users from exploring opportunities involving high-risk and higher rewards like restaking, DePIN infrastructure, MEV, and Defi. Notably, Staking rewards differs significantly across blockchains as BNB Smart Chain’s real returns are one of the highest at 7.43%, while Cardano offers just 0.55%.
Besides, benefits with staking include locking token onchain, supporting validators, securing the network. Notably, the rewards earned function similar to interest earned on a savings account, but instead of cash, stakers earn in crypto, which can fluctuate in value.
The proposals to changing staking procedures are common. Polkadot had previously proposed to reduce the unstaking time to just two days. Further, in September, Starknet introduced a new staking mechanism. Meanwhile Vitalik Buterin suggested solutions to staking issues later.
