Polkadot Holders Approve First Step Cutting Active Validators From 600 to 500

Polkadot token holders have approved the first of three planned reductions to the network’s active validator set. Referendum 1966, titled “Step #1 of Validator Set Reduction” and run on the Whitelisted Caller track, is shown as approved on Subsquare with about 48.14 million DOT in favour and 36,388 DOT against, a 99.9% aye share. Support was about 152.95 million DOT, roughly 9.09% of issuance.

According to the on-chain proposal, the change lowers the validator count from 600 to 500, takes effect in the first era after enactment at relay chain block 33,814,400, and shrinks the validator incentive budget proportionally. It also adjusts relay chain and Coretime chain settings through cross-chain messages.

The referendum is the first step of a community roadmap, first raised in the Polkadot forum, that TokenPost summarised as going from 600 to 500, then 400, then 320 validators, about a week apart, with each step needing Fellowship whitelisting and its own vote. TokenPost reported that the plan targets 320 by the end of 2026. As of November 8, CryptoTicker said no proposal for step two had been submitted, so the later steps remain proposals, not decisions.

The link to JAM, the planned architecture that would distribute compute more flexibly than fixed parachain slots, is not confirmed by the pages reviewed here. Those sources describe the cut as preparation for validators taking on collator and RPC duties, and none gives a date for any full JAM migration.

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Sources:

• Subsquare: Referendum 1966, Step #1 of Validator Set Reduction

• TokenPost: Polkadot Proposal Would Cut Active Validator Set to 320 by Year-End

• CryptoTicker: Polkadot passes Referendum 1966