NEAR governance approves end to developer gas rebates, sending all fees to burn

News Editor

2026-07-13 09:02:34

NEAR’s on-chain governance body, House of Stake, has approved proposal HSP-027 to remove the protocol’s developer gas rebate, changing how transaction fees are handled on the network. Under the current setup, 30% of gas fees generated by a smart-contract call go to the contract owner, while 70% are burned. Once the change is implemented, the rebate will fall to 0% and all gas fees will be burned. NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin confirmed the result on Monday and described the move as a way to keep the protocol simpler and cleaner. A delegate who voted on the proposal said implementation is expected around August 2026 with the nearcore v2.14 release. The final tally was 46 votes representing 4.66 million veNEAR in favor, against two votes representing 1,819 veNEAR. NEAR accounts had flagged the change earlier this month, telling builders not to include the gas bonus in dApp budgets and describing the measure as a way to reduce protocol complexity and misaligned builder incentives. Polosukhin said the original rebate no longer matches how most NEAR apps make money and also pointed to accounting difficulties in separating rebates from ordinary user deposits.

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House of Stake passes HSP-027

NEAR’s on-chain governance body, House of Stake, passed proposal HSP-027 to remove the protocol’s developer gas rebate. NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin confirmed the outcome on Monday, calling it a step "to keep NAER Protocol simpler and cleaner going forward."

Under the current design, 30% of gas fees generated by calls to a smart contract go to that contract’s owner, while the other 70% are burned. According to a delegate who voted on the proposal, the rebate will drop to 0% once the change is implemented, meaning all network gas fees will be burned. The same delegate said the rollout is expected around August 2026 with the nearcore v2.14 release.

The final tally was 46 votes representing 4.66 million veNEAR in favor, versus two votes representing 1,819 veNEAR against.

NEAR accounts had already warned builders

NEAR’s developer-relations account flagged the vote in early July and warned builders, "don’t factor this gas bonus into your dApp’s budget anymore." NEAR’s governance account said the measure was intended to reduce "protocol complexity and misaligned incentives for builders."

Polosukhin says the old incentive no longer fits

Polosukhin said he originally designed the rebate to encourage developers to build reusable components. He said the mechanism no longer reflects how most applications on NEAR monetize, because projects usually sponsor gas costs and recover revenue through spreads, subscriptions, or ads.

He also pointed to an accounting issue, saying the rebate was difficult to distinguish from ordinary user deposits of funds.

A governance test for NEAR’s economic settings

Polosukhin described the vote as a trial run for House of Stake’s authority over NEAR’s core economic parameters. He said it was "a great test" ahead of future proposals and added that he was "excited to have explicit governance for economics of $NEAR."

Removing the rebate makes NEAR’s token issuance more deflationary by ending the carve-out from fee burning. It does not change the network’s broader value-capture model.

This article was originally published by Bit.Fan. For more cryptocurrency news and market insights, visit www.bit.fan.

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