Dear community,

This proposal aims to set the minimum validator commission to 10%. This change aligns with the Polkadot 2.0 roadmap. It's a necessary response to the economic shift we've seen since March 14th “Polkadot Halving” (Referendum #1710), and the upcoming 10,000 DOT validator self-bond requirement.

Motivation: As outlined in the official roadmap and recent WFC Referendum #1827 and the community discussion in Polkadot Forum, Polkadot is undergoing a fundamental transition toward the Dynamic Allocation Pool (DAP) model.

On January 28, 2026, the community ratified Phase 1 of the DAP in the previously mentioned WFC Referendum #1827, which introduced a more agile issuance model and redirected treasury burns and slashes into the DAP account. However, a critical piece of this transition remains pending.
While the network issuance was significantly reduced on March 14, 2026, the corresponding protective measures for validators, specifically the 10% minimum commission, were originally bundled with the 10,000 DOT self-stake requirement scheduled for late April.

The case for immediate implementation: There is a growing consensus within the Polkadot community and validator groups that the 10% commission floor should have ideally coincided with the issuance reduction. Waiting until the end of April creates an unnecessary sustainability gap for node operators.

Besides that, the long-term DAP vision (Phase 2) will eventually provide validators with fixed income for operational costs and vested DOT rewards. Until that phase is fully live, the 10% commission floor is the primary mechanism to ensure validators remain viable following the 53.6% reduction in total issuance.

This proposal seeks to remedy the timing mismatch by enacting the 10% floor now, rather than waiting for the broader April referendum.

Post-enactment enforcement: We want to make this transition as smooth as possible, so once the proposal passes, we’ll trigger a one-time batch update (staking.forceApplyMinCommission) to automatically bring anyone currently below 10% up to the new minimum. This keeps the playing field fair for everyone from day one and saves node operators the trouble of having to update their settings manually.

Links:

WFC Referendum #1827

WFC Referendum #1710

Polkadot Forum discussion "Changes on Polkadot in March 2026"