The proposal, called “Validator Redirected Revenue,” was introduced on the Ethereum Research Forum by Kleros founder Clément Lesaege. It would create a protocol-level mechanism allowing validators to redirect between 0% and 10% of their staking rewards toward funding ecosystem public goods.
How the money would flow
An estimated 35 to 40 million ETH is staked on the network, earning an average reward rate of roughly 1.91%. That translates to approximately 700,000 ETH in collective annual validator earnings.
If validators chose to redirect 5% to 10% of those rewards, the proposal could generate between 50,000 and 70,000 ETH per year. At current ETH prices, that works out to approximately $120 million annually flowing toward public goods.
Validators would express their preferred contribution rate, anywhere from 0% to 10%. If a majority of validators endorse a rate above zero, that rate becomes mandatory across the entire network. Funds would then be distributed through a smart contract called a “splitter,” which allocates money based on validators’ stated recipient preferences. The system aggregates those preferences using a Condorcet-winner method, a voting mechanism designed to select the option that would beat every other option in a head-to-head matchup.
