As a quant analyst with roots in both Wall Street and the blockchain frontier, I’m watching NEAR’s community vote on reducing its fixed annual inflation from 5% to 2.5%. This isn’t just a number tweak—it’s a philosophical test of sustainable tokenomics. In this post, I break down the mechanics, the incentives behind the move, and what it signals about decentralization vs. stability. If you're into DeFi governance or token design, this is one vote that could redefine long-term value.

Web3 is broken. DApps aren’t truly decentralized when users juggle wallets, gas fees, and bridges just to order coffee. NEAR’s co-founder Illia Polosukhin argues for *chain abstraction*—hiding blockchain complexity behind seamless interfaces. Imagine buying NFTs, swapping tokens, and paying friends across chains without ever seeing a wallet popup. With 12.4M monthly active users, NEAR’s blueprint could onboard billions. Here’s why modular blockchains need this glue—and how it works.