The Solana Foundation has taken a major step toward decentralizing decision-making. The organization has officially launched onchain governance, allowing validators and delegators to participate directly in protocol-level decisions.
The new framework, called Solana Governance Proposals (SGPs), creates a transparent system where proposals are submitted, verified, and voted on entirely onchain. Validators with at least 100,000 delegated SOL can create proposals. However, those proposals only move to a network-wide vote after securing support from validators representing 15% of the cluster’s total stake.
Once voting begins, results are determined through a stake-weighted process. Delegators also gain greater control. If they disagree with their validator’s decision, or if their validator chooses not to vote, they can cast their own vote using their delegated stake.
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Solana Foundation Introduces Merkle-Proof Governance
The Solana Foundation designed the governance system around two dedicated onchain programs. The first, ncn-snapshot, creates a verifiable snapshot of validator stake. The second, svmgov, manages proposal voting.
Independent operators build Merkle trees from the Solana ledger to calculate validator stake. After reaching consensus on the correct snapshot, the result is published onchain. Validators then submit Merkle proofs that verify their voting power before casting ballots.
This structure aims to eliminate uncertainty while ensuring every vote is backed by cryptographic verification. The fully onchain approach also reduces reliance on offchain coordination and strengthens trust in governance outcomes.
Solana Foundation Separates Governance From Development
The Solana Foundation also clarified that SGPs do not replace the existing Solana Improvement Documents (SIMDs) process. Instead, the two systems serve different purposes.
SIMDs continue to answer the technical question of how protocol upgrades should be implemented. Those decisions remain in the hands of core developers. SGPs, meanwhile, allow the broader validator community to decide whether a proposal should move forward through stake-weighted voting.
Unless an SGP reaches the required 15% stake-support threshold, protocol development continues through the normal SIMD process without interruption.
The governance launch follows several recent initiatives aimed at expanding institutional participation across the Solana ecosystem. These include introducing native payment rails for subscriptions and allowances, along with MoneyGram’s decision to join the network as a validator. Together, these developments signal the Solana Foundation’s continued push toward stronger decentralization, broader validator engagement, and greater institutional adoption.
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