The once disregarded "Staking Shovel" TIA is once again facing a community outcry. During a time of prolonged price decline and marginalized narratives, Celestia's network income has remained persistently low, and the feasibility of the DA Racetrack has also been challenged. Against this backdrop, its co-founder John Adler has put forward a disruptive governance proposal.

Unstaking the Future, Celestia Aims to Rewrite the "POS"itory

Co-founder John Adler recently proposed a disruptive governance proposal, advocating for the network to fully abandon the current Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanism and instead adopt a "Proof-of-Governance" (PoG) model. This proposal, once introduced, sparked a heated debate in the crypto community, directly addressing the core idea of blockchain governance structure.

If this proposal is adopted, the Celestia network will undergo a series of structural reconfigurations: First, the issuance of TIA tokens will be reduced by approximately 20 times, significantly compressing circulating inflation, corresponding to a staggering 95% reduction in issuance. Second, existing delegation staking and liquidity staking contracts will be completely abolished, and the on-chain governance mechanism will simultaneously cease.

The additional issuance of TIA will be entirely allocated to validators as off-chain incentives for running nodes; validators will no longer be elected through token voting but rather determined through off-chain governance. Additionally, Celestia will adopt a fee burning mechanism to reward token holders, with approximately $100 to $300 in daily protocol revenue directly used to support the value of TIA.

Adler even advocates for the complete elimination of the concept of "staking." He believes that in a scenario where there are no longer token issuance rewards and validators are not elected through staking votes, the act of "staking" becomes superfluous, and LST loses its foundation, making TIA itself a direct vessel for capturing value.

Adler's proposal is fundamentally aimed at addressing the inflationary pressure on TIA's price during a prolonged downturn by constructing a more scarce and compact token economic model to inject a fundamental rationale for the network's long-term value.

However, at the same time, this proposal also challenges several assumptions considered "taken for granted" in Ethereum's mainstream consensus, such as whether blockchain economic security truly relies on a penalty mechanism (slashing), whether PoS is actually a permissioned variant of "authority proof" (a variation of PoA), and whether a blockchain system can operate sustainably through a "no-governance profit model." If adopted, this proposal will not only reconstruct Celestia's economic model but may also pose a challenge to the current Ethereum-dominated staking governance logic.

Source: Blockworks Research.

However, just as this governance proposal aimed at "rebuilding the tokenomics foundation" has not yet been implemented, the community has successively exposed significant cash-outs by the Celestia team, causing divergent interpretations of the proposal's original intent. On one hand, the project team emphasizes that the PoG model is expected to curb inflation, repair the token model, and restore market confidence; but on the other hand, on-chain data shows that several core team members swiftly conducted large-scale cash-out operations shortly after the unlocking window opened, with a cumulative cash-out exceeding $100 million, sparking market skepticism.

Whether this deflationary reform is for the long-term value of TIA or a institutional cover-up after the team's "exit at a high" remains a question. Against the backdrop of a 92% decline in TIA's price and ongoing erosion of user trust, Celestia's "modular vision" is facing an unprecedented trust crisis.

Exit at a High: The Only Way?

Community user @0xCircusLover's tweet accuses the Celestia core team of severe lack of transparency in multiple aspects such as token unlocking, fund operations, and market promotion. Some observers have described this revelation as an exposure of a "criminal pattern" within Celestia, triggering strong doubts about the project's internal governance and ethics.

According to the disclosure, the Celestia executives had already completed the TIA token unlock in early October 2024, with team members' unlocking following shortly after. In the following months, several key figures were reportedly seen to have achieved substantial cash-outs through off-exchange trades or asset swapping. For instance, co-founder Mustafa was alleged to have cashed out over $25 million through an OTC channel and has since relocated to Dubai, while another key figure, Andy, was accused of receiving compensation to promote TIA, and Yaz was fired and exited the crypto space due to sexual harassment allegations. Users claim to have relevant victim information and evidence of pump-and-dump transactions and plan to disclose the full materials soon.

In addition, he also mentioned that Celestia had paid a seven-figure USD amount to the well-known entity Abstract to sever its "déjà vu" ties with competitor Eigen, and had paid media personalities Jon Charb and Bankless to maintain a positive project image. These series of financial operations have been accused by the whistleblower as typical examples of "paid promotion."

Another point of controversy revolves around Bankless host David's role, with the community questioning his frequent advocacy for TIA despite having no actual experience using Celestia's data availability service or protocol implementation. Instead, in multiple public statements, he has contradicted himself regarding whether he holds TIA tokens, leading to widespread skepticism about the fairness of his statements.

While the disclosure has not yet received an official response, it has already triggered a trust crisis within certain circles, especially amid the pressure on TIA's current market price and continued employee sell-offs. Celestia rose to fame with the narrative of "modular data availability," but now, the chain of doubts surrounding its core team governance, public opinion manipulation, and fund flows is pushing this once highly anticipated project into an unprecedented PR crisis.

"The entire Crypto community actually has evidence all over the place, but no one is willing to speak out publicly because 'they are too big'."

Previously, crypto KOL Mosi provided an internal team token distribution and cash-out data sheet for Celestia, showing that team members have collectively sold about 9.43 million TIA tokens, with an estimated total cash-out amount of up to $109 million based on the market price at that time. These tokens belong to the "Team" category and are owned by early core members and contributors.

The largest sell-off address is celestia1erglsz..., having sold 2,609,516.29 TIA, equivalent to $27,368,523.82 in cash. Multiple addresses have sold amounts exceeding one million dollars, indicating the team's active cash-outs during the early token unlock period.

Under this tweet, a user quoted Celestia COO Nick White's statement to mock, "I have never sold a single TIA token," starkly juxtaposed with the one billion dollars in the image.

In October last year, Celestia announced to the public on the eve of a major unlock that it had "completed a $1 billion funding round," sparking optimistic expectations in the community. However, according to crypto investor Sisyphus, the funding was actually from an OTC transaction completed months ago, and the involved tokens would be unlocked in October. Some community members viewed this behavior as a typical form of information manipulation: "First, conduct an OTC sale, then spin it as good news, and finally guide retail holders to buy in before the unlock window."

Further reading: "Celestia Suspected of 'Pumping Before Dumping,' Large Coin Sales Packaged as Funding Before Unlock″

Despite Celestia's current valuation being touted at $35 billion by external sources, its actual revenue is far from enough to support such inflated valuation. Public data reveals that Celestia's daily protocol revenue is less than a hundred dollars, with an annualized potential of only around $5 million. Industry insiders generally point out that Celestia's market pricing is more like a premium advance on the "future narrative" rather than being based on existing usage data or a viable business model. Therefore, once market sentiment turns cold, its valuation bubble is vulnerable to compression.

Facing various accusations and public opinion storms surrounding Celestia, the founder publicly stated that despite the current market being filled with "increasingly outrageous FUD, all founding members, early employees, and core engineers are still onboard. They also revealed that Celestia currently holds over $1 billion in reserve funds, with sufficient cash flow to support operations for over 6 years.

"To survive in this industry, every project must weather the storm. Almost all tokens will experience a 95% crash at some point in their lifecycle, which is the norm rather than the exception," wrote Mustafa in a tweet. At present, TIA has already plummeted 92% from its peak.

Welcome to join the official BlockBeats community:

Telegram Subscription Group: https://t.me/theblockbeats

Telegram Discussion Group: https://t.me/BlockBeats_App

Official Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia