NEAR Co-founder Proposes Sovereign Fund to Enhance Token Economics Sustainability

Illia Polosukhin suggests a sovereign fund using protocol revenues to support public goods, aiming to reduce inflation and potentially transition to a fixed supply.

Woofun AI reports that NEAR Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin proposed the creation of a protocol sovereign fund during a governance forum. The initiative aims to bolster the long-term sustainability of the network's token economics by pooling existing and future protocol treasuries and revenues. The fund will hold NEAR tokens to generate returns, with a portion allocated to cover ecosystem public goods costs, including security, validator support programs, and MPC service providers.

Polosukhin argued that utilizing ecological revenue to acquire NEAR and fund public goods via returns offers better long-term alignment than simple token burning. The initial protocol treasury size is approximately 30 million NEAR, valued at around $53 million USD. Governance mechanisms could inject additional revenue and emissions into the fund, potentially reducing effective inflation and transitioning toward a fixed supply. The proposal is currently open for discussion for two weeks and is non-mandatory.