On March 5, asset management company VanEck said that Solana's planned protocol upgrade is crucial to the long-term health of the network, but may hit the verifier's income. In March, Solana's validators will vote on two blockchain protocol upgrade proposals (SIMD) that aim to ensure rewards for pledgers and adjust the inflation rate of the network-native token SOL. Matthew Sigel, director of digital asset research at VanEck, said in a March 4 X post that the two proposals have caused "significant controversy" because they could cut verifiers 'revenue by as much as 95%, potentially endangering small operators. "While these changes may reduce pledge rewards, we believe that reducing inflation is a worthy goal and can enhance Solana's long-term sustainability," Sigel said. Sigel said that the first proposal, SIMD0123, would introduce an intra-protocol mechanism to allocate Solana's priority fees to verifier pledgers. Traders can pay additional fees to speed up transaction processing. Priority fees account for 40% of network revenue, but currently verifiers do not need to share with pledgers. The proposal, which was voted on March 6, aims to increase pledge rewards, block off-chain trading agreements and strengthen on-chain execution. Sigel said the second proposal, SIMD0228, is the "most influential" proposal and would adjust the SOL inflation rate to be inversely proportional to the percentage of pledged token supply, potentially reducing dilution and reducing selling pressure on pledgers. As of February, Solana's inflation rate was 4%, down from the initial 8%, but still well above the terminal target of 1.5%, and is currently falling at an annual rate of 15%, Coin Metrics reported.