Web3 Foundation Holds Off on 100x Polkadot Redenomination

The Web3 Foundation has pushed back its proposal to redenominate 100x of Polkadot’s (DOT) supply after conducting a community referendum on the Kusama network.

While the referendum, dubbed a Polkassembly, largely saw support for the proposal, Web3 noted a “non-negligible amount of opposition, including from some within the ranks of Web3 Foundation and Parity.”

Web3 Foundation backs off on DOT redenomination

The Web3 Foundation has announced that it “cannot, in good faith, sponsor redenomination” after seeking community feedback on its proposal to increase the supply of DOTs by 100x.

The proposal outlined a plan to Plancks, the sub denomination of Dots, as Satoshis are to Bitcoin (BTC) — adjusting the value of dots from one-trillionth of a DOT to one ten-billionth.

In a bid to prevent the redenomination from impacting holders, the supply of DOTs would also be increased by 100x — preserving each DOT holder’s respective total share of the network.

Web3 argued that the denomination would bring “the ability to deal with more ergonomic or human-readable units, like whole numbers rather than small decimals.”

Record voter participation on Kusama

The non-binding vote was conducted on the Kusama chain and garnered a turnout of more than 13% — the largest of any referendum held on Kusama.

Based on social media-based debate and voting activity, Web3 concluded that “the Kusama community is broadly split and feels quite strongly about the referendum.”

While “a significant majority was recorded in favor of redenomination,” enough resistance was met for the foundation to hold off on implementing the proposal.

Web3 advocates binding vote across Polkadot network

In light of the results, the Web3 Foundation offers two paths forward: “do nothing and allow the current denomination to stand, or conduct a final, binding vote on the Polkadot network itself.”

Identifying as a proponent of on-chain governance, the foundation recommends a network-wide referendum as the most-appropriate next course of action. However, Web3 notes that conducting a vote during the launch processes after Polkadot’s genesis “would be quite a technical feat with great potential to cause confusion all round.”

“As such, it is not something we will condone without a reasonable belief that it will not cause major problems. We will be researching the technicalities of the matter, canvassing key community stakeholders and infrastructure providers, and monitoring the usual social media channels on the matter to determine if such a vote could be safely executed,” the foundation added.