Is Celestia's “staking revolution” behind the PoG proposal, or is it a 100 million yuan shipping interpretation?
TIA, the “deposit shovel” that no one cares about now, has once again faced a crisis of public opinion in the community. In a period where prices were falling for a long time and narratives were gradually being marginalized, Celestia's network revenue continued to be sluggish and the viability of the DA circuit was challenged. Against this backdrop, its co-founder John Adler proposed a disruptive governance proposal. To cancel the pledge, Celestia wants to revolutionize the life of “POS” Co-founder John Adler recently proposed a disruptive governance proposal, arguing that the network should completely abandon the current proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism and instead adopt a “proof-of-governance (PoG)” (Proof-of-Governance (PoG)) model. As soon as the proposal was proposed, it sparked a buzz in the crypto community, pointing directly to the core concept of the blockchain governance structure. If the plan is adopted, the Celestia network will undergo a series of structural restructurings: First, the issuance of TIA tokens will be cut by about 20 times, greatly reducing circulation inflation, and the corresponding reduction ratio is as high as 95%. Second, existing entrustment pledge and liquidity pledge contracts will be completely abolished, and the on-chain governance mechanism will be terminated simultaneously. The total amount of TIA's new issuance will be paid to validators as off-chain incentives for operating nodes; validators are no longer selected through token voting, but are determined through an off-chain governance mechanism. Additionally, Celestia will use a fee burning mechanism to give back to coin holders, and approximately $100 to $300 of daily protocol revenue will be directly used for TIA value support. Adler even advocates the complete removal of the concept of “staking.” He believes that in a situation where there are no more token issuance rewards and no reliance on pledge voting to select validators, the act of “staking” becomes superfluous, LST also loses its foundation of existence, and TIA itself becomes a direct vehicle for value capture. Adler's proposal is essentially aimed at addressing the prolonged downward inflationary pressure on TIA prices and injecting basic logic into the long-term value of the network by constructing a scarcer and more compact token economy model. But at the same time, the solution also challenges several assumptions taken as “taken for granted” in the mainstream Ethereum consensus, such as whether blockchain economic security actually relies on a punishment mechanism (slashing), whether PoS is actually a “proof of authority” mechanism with authority (a variant of PoA), and whether the blockchain system can operate sustainably through a “no-governance profit model.” If adopted, this proposal will not only restructure Celestia's economic model, but may also challenge the current Ethereum-dominated pledge governance logic. Source: Blockworks Research. However, even when this governance proposal aimed at “rebuilding the foundation of the token economy” has yet to be implemented, the community has revealed the Celestia team's massive cash-outs, causing the outside world to interpret the original purpose of the proposal in a mixed manner. On the one hand, the project side emphasized that the PoG model is expected to curb inflation, repair the token model, and revive market confidence; on the other hand, on-chain data showed that many core team members quickly completed large monetization operations after opening the unlock window, and accumulated more than 100 million US dollars in cash out, causing market questions. Is this deflationary reform actually for TIA's long-term value, or is it a cover for the system after the team “ships at a high level”? In a context where TIA has declined by 92% and user trust continues to be lost, Celestia's “modular vision” is facing an unprecedented crisis of trust. Is shipping king? Community user @0xCircusLover's tweet alleges that the Celestia core team is seriously opaque at various levels, including token unlocking, fund operation, and market promotion. This revelation was described by some observers as revealing Celestia's “criminal model,” triggering strong questions from the market about the internal governance and conduct of the project. According to its disclosure, Celestia executives completed the TIA token unlock as early as early October 2024, and team members' unlocking followed suit. Over the next few months, a number of key figures were revealed to have been able to cash out large sums through OTC transactions or resource swaps. For example, Mustafa, the co-founder of the project, is accused of monetizing more than $25 million through OTC channels and has moved to Dubai, while Andy, another key figure, is being paid to promote TIA, while Yaz is involved...
