NEAR Protocol's governance body has voted to eliminate gas fee rebates for developers, burning all fees instead.
The NEAR Protocol is implementing significant changes by eliminating the gas fee rebates for developers, a move approved by the governance body known as House of Stake on July 6.
This adjustment means that 100% of network gas fees will be burned, rather than partially returned to developers as was the case previously. Current regulations allocate 30% of these fees to contract owners while burning the other 70%. The transition to a zero-rebate system is projected to take effect in August 2026, coinciding with the rollout of nearcore v2.14.
Delegate Vini B, who participated in the voting process, detailed that the proposal saw 46 votes in favor, totaling 4.66 million veNEAR, contrasted with two votes against, representing 1,819 veNEAR. The Near DevHub account emphasized the importance of this shift, advising developers to no longer consider gas rebates in their application budgets.
"This change simplifies protocol dynamics and corrects misaligned incentives for developers,"
the House of Stake noted.
NEAR co-founder Ilya Polosukhin, who initially designed the rebate to promote development, acknowledged that the current system does not align with how most applications on NEAR are monetized. He pointed out that many projects tend to absorb gas costs while earning revenue through other means such as subscriptions or advertising. Additionally, he highlighted the accounting challenges presented by the rebate scheme, stressing that it complicated distinguishing between user deposits and rebates.
Polosukhin regarded this vote as a crucial test for House of Stake's governance capabilities regarding NEAR's economy, expressing satisfaction with the clarity of governance displayed through this decision. This development follows prior calls for reforms in decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) by figures like Vitalik Buterin earlier this year.
