Solana's first major governance cycle has exposed disagreement over the network's transaction fee structure, with co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko backing the direction of change but questioning the proposal's scope.
Proposal SGP-0003 would replace Solana's fixed signature fee with a computation-based system, where costs reflect the actual network resources a transaction consumes. Currently, all transactions pay the same base charge regardless of their complexity, creating an imbalance where smaller transfers pay disproportionately high fees relative to the computational work they require. Yakovenko noted that a small transaction pays nearly 280 times more per unit of computing work than a large transaction using maximum write allowance.
Yakovenko supports the shift toward usage-based fees but contends the proposal bundles too many decisions together. He prefers splitting SGP-0003 into separate votes: one to replace the fixed signature charge and another to determine whether validators or an automatic system should set the rate. His concern is that combining these decisions may discourage voters interested in only part of the proposal from participating entirely.
He emphasized that opposition to charging based on computing use appears minimal, suggesting agreement exists on the fundamental direction.
In related news, Charles Schwab announced that Solana, Chainlink, and Avalanche will be added to its crypto trading platform in the coming months. The expansion follows Schwab Crypto's May launch, which initially offered Bitcoin and Ethereum trading. These three assets represent the platform's first expansion beyond those original offerings.
