Stake revolution or dump cover? Celestia's PoG proposal and the billion yuan trap doubts.

The "staking shovel" TIA, which is now disregarded by everyone, is once again facing a community opinion crisis. During this period of prolonged downward movement in price and the marginalization of its narrative, Celestia's network revenue has continued to slump, and the viability of the DA track has also encountered challenges. Against this backdrop, its co-founder John Adler has put forward a disruptive governance proposal.

Cancel stake, Celestia wants to revolutionize "POS".

Co-founder John Adler recently proposed a disruptive governance proposal, advocating that the network should completely abandon the current Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanism in favor of a Proof-of-Governance (PoG) model. This proposal has sparked heated discussions within the crypto community, directly addressing the core concepts of blockchain governance structure.

If the proposal is adopted, the Celestia network will undergo a series of structural reconstructions: first, the issuance of TIA tokens will be reduced by about 20 times, significantly compressing circulation inflation, with a corresponding reduction rate of up to 95%. Secondly, the existing delegated staking and liquidity staking contracts will be completely abolished, and the on-chain governance mechanism will be terminated simultaneously.

The new issuance of TIA will be fully paid to validators as off-chain incentives for running nodes; validators will no longer be elected through token voting but will be decided through an off-chain governance mechanism. In addition, Celestia will adopt a fee-burning mechanism to reward token holders, with approximately $100 to $300 in protocol revenue generated daily to directly support the value of TIA.

Adler even advocates for the complete removal of the concept of "stake." He believes that in the absence of token issuance rewards and without relying on staking votes to elect validators, the act of "staking" becomes redundant, and LST loses its basis for existence, with TIA itself becoming a direct vehicle for value capture.

Adler's proposal is essentially aimed at addressing the inflationary pressure of TIA prices during prolonged downward movement, by constructing a more scarce and compact token economic model to inject foundational logic into the network's long-term value.

However, at the same time, this proposal challenges several assumptions that are considered "self-evident" in the mainstream consensus of Ethereum, such as whether the economic security of the blockchain really relies on punishment mechanisms (slashing), whether PoS is actually a permissioned "Proof of Authority" mechanism (a variant of PoA), and whether blockchain systems can operate sustainably through a "no-governance profit model." If this proposal is adopted, it will not only reconstruct the economic model of Celestia but may also pose a challenge to the current staking governance logic dominated by Ethereum.

Source: Blockworks Research.

However, just as this governance proposal aimed at "rebuilding the token economy" has yet to be implemented, the community has continuously exposed the Celestia team's large-scale cash-out behavior, leading to divergent interpretations of the proposal's original intention. On one hand, the project side emphasizes that the PoG model is expected to curb inflation, repair the token model, and restore market confidence; on the other hand, on-chain data shows that several core team members quickly completed large cash-out operations after the unlocking window opened, with a total cash-out exceeding 100 million dollars, raising market doubts.

Is this deflationary reform truly for the long-term value of TIA, or is it a system cover-up after the team "sold at a high price"? Against the backdrop of TIA's fall of 92% and the continuous loss of user trust, Celestia's "modular vision" is facing an unprecedented trust crisis.

Is selling the only way to succeed?

The tweet from community user @0xCircusLover accuses the Celestia core team of serious opacity in multiple areas, including token unlocking, fund operations, and market promotion. This revelation has been described by some observers as an exposure of Celestia's "criminal pattern", raising strong doubts in the market about the project's internal governance and integrity.

According to its disclosure, Celestia executives completed the unlocking of TIA tokens in early October 2024, followed closely by the unlocking of team members. In the following months, several core figures were reported to have realized significant cash-outs through over-the-counter transactions or resource exchanges. For example, project co-founder Mustafa was alleged to have cashed out over 25 million USD through OTC channels and has relocated to Dubai, while another key figure, Andy, was accused of accepting compensation in TIA for promotion, and Yaz was fired and exited the crypto space due to sexual harassment allegations. Users claim to possess relevant victim information and evidence of promotional transactions and plan to release complete materials soon.

In addition, he mentioned that Celestia had paid the well-known institution Abstract a seven-figure sum in dollars to "detach" its partnership with the competitor Eigen, and paid media personnel Jon Charb and Bankless to maintain a positive image of the project. This series of financial maneuvers has been accused by whistleblowers of being a typical operation of "paid promotion."

Another focal point of the controversy centers around the role of Bankless host David, as the community questions his frequent advocacy for TIA despite having no actual experience using Celestia's data availability services or building protocols. Instead, his contradictory statements regarding whether he holds TIA tokens in multiple public speeches have triggered widespread doubts about the integrity of his comments.

Although this revelation has not yet received an official response, it has already triggered a trust crisis in certain circles, especially under the backdrop of TIA's current market price pressure and ongoing employee sell-offs, leading to a further amplification effect. Celestia once rose to fame with its narrative of "modular data availability," but now, the series of doubts surrounding its core team governance, public opinion manipulation, and fund flows are plunging this once-promising project into an unprecedented public relations crisis.

"There is actually evidence everywhere in the entire Crypto circle, but no one is willing to talk about it publicly because 'they are too big.'"

Previously, crypto KOL Mosi provided a data table on the distribution and monetization of Celestia's internal team tokens, showing that team members have sold a total of approximately 9.43 million TIA, with an estimated cumulative cashing amount reaching up to 109 million USD based on the market price at that time. These tokens are all classified under "Team" category, belonging to early core members and contributors.

The largest sell-off address is celestia1erglsz..., having sold 2,609,516.29 TIA, corresponding to cash of 27,368,523.82 dollars. Multiple addresses have sell-off amounts exceeding one million dollars, showing that the team is actively monetizing at the early stage of the token unlock.

Below this tweet, a user quotes Celestia COO Nick White's statement to mock, "I have never sold a single TIA," which echoes the one hundred million dollars in the image above.

In October last year, Celestia announced that it had "completed a $100 million financing" just before a major unlocking event, which once sparked optimistic expectations within the community regarding its financial strength. However, according to crypto investor Sisyphus, this financing was actually an over-the-counter transaction completed months earlier, and the tokens involved will be unlocked in October. Such behavior is seen by some community members as typical information manipulation: "first offload OTC, then package it as good news, and finally guide retail investors to take over before the unlocking window."

Although Celestia's current valuation is labeled at $3.5 billion, its real revenue is far from able to support such an inflated valuation. According to publicly available data, Celestia's average daily negotiated revenue is less than $100, and its annualized potential is only around $5 million. Industry insiders have generally pointed out that Celestia's market pricing is more like a premium advance on a "future narrative" than on existing usage data or business models. As a result, once market sentiment cools, its valuation bubble is vulnerable to being squeezed.

In the face of various accusations and public opinion storms surrounding Celestia, the founder of Celestia publicly stated that despite the current market being filled with "increasingly outrageous FUD, all founding members, early employees, and core engineers are still on duty. He also revealed that Celestia currently has over $100 million in reserves, with ample cash flow to support operations for more than 6 years.

"To survive in this industry, every project must go through storms. Almost all tokens will experience a 95% fall at some point in their lifecycle, which is the norm rather than the exception," Mustafa wrote in a tweet. Now, TIA has fallen 92% from its peak.