Proposal Concept: Strengthening Moonriver’s Inflation Controls During Low Usage Periods
Hey everyone — I’ve been doing a deep dive into Moonriver’s tokenomics, especially around the inflation model and recent upgrades like Referendum 69, which now burns 100% of transaction fees. That’s a strong deflationary move — but only if usage and fee volume are high.
Right now, Moonriver’s usage is relatively low (likely due to overall altcoin market conditions), which means fee volume — and thus the burn mechanism — may not currently be sufficient to offset ongoing inflation (staking rewards, parachain bond reserve, etc).
That brings up a key long-term concern:
How do we protect MOVR’s value during periods of low activity?
If inflation continues while burns remain minimal, the circulating supply could grow faster than demand — especially since MOVR has no fixed max supply.
Here are some proposals for consideration:
1. Dynamic Inflation Adjustment:
Allow the inflation rate to scale based on network usage.
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Low usage → temporarily reduce staking emissions
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High usage → restore emissions to current levels
This aligns token issuance with actual demand and avoids over-inflating during quiet cycles.
2. Dual Burn Model:
Introduce additional burn paths beyond transaction fees. Examples:
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Burn a small percentage of staking rewards
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Burn unused rewards from parachain reserve or treasury allocations
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Burn excess collator rewards during periods of validator oversupply
3. Lock & Burn Incentives:
Add optional staking lockups with partial reward burns.
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Users who lock for longer earn more, but a portion is burned
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Helps create deflationary pressure and reduce circulating supply passively
4. Buy-and-Burn via Treasury:
If the Moonriver treasury accrues value (e.g., via parachain auctions, dApp revenue), allocate a portion to buy back MOVR on the open market and burn it.
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This maintains demand-side pressure even in flat market cycles
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Mirrors successful models seen in other ecosystems (like early BNB)
5. Fee Floor Minimums:
Consider implementing a dynamic minimum gas fee floor, even when usage is low. This ensures some base-level burn continues regardless of activity.
Why this matters:
Moonriver is one of the most undervalued and under-the-radar projects in the Polkadot ecosystem, with a tight supply and strong dev architecture. If the tokenomics model can become functionally deflationary, or at least adaptive to demand, it strengthens long-term investor confidence and helps preserve MOVR’s scarcity-driven value.
Would love feedback from the team or other contributors — even small changes here could have a major impact over time. Appreciate everyone’s work on this ecosystem and hope this sparks some thoughtful discussion!