I have a simple proposal: automatically tie the burnrate in the Polkadot Treasury to 2x the price decrease (as noted in US dollars) in the previous calendar month - but cap it at 50%. So, for example, DOT has fallen by some 16% so far this calendar month (June 2025), meaning that, if this proposal were in effect, the Treasury would start burning about 32% of its incoming DOT on the first of July. If the price continues falling vis a vis the USD, but only by 5%, then the burnrate would be adjusted to 10% in August. If the price rises in a given month (like it did in November of 2024), the burnrate would be set to 0% for the following month and all of the funds in the Treasury can be spent on various projects or staked/saved for future projects.
As for the cap - so far, there have been ten months where the price decreased by more than 25% month-on-month, and thus this rule would've been capped out at 50% - however, the month-on-month losses rarely exceeded 30% (only three such months: -36.3% in May 2021, -32.02% in April 2022, -33.4% in April 2024). So, in each of these cases, the burnrate would've greatly exceeded the loss in USD value, and besides that - it's fair to say that the Treasury still needs a guarantee that they will receive at least some new funds each month to spend on projects in order to further develop Polkadot.
While this wouldn't perfectly eliminate volatility or large price decreases, and it wouldn't solve all of the problems of Polkadot, it would assure investors that DOT is based on a sensible and easy-to-understand supply-and-demand rule, and therefore can be more stable in its long-run value than it has been so far, which means that their gains from staking will likely exceed any future losses in the value of DOT. It would surely slow down panic-selling in the event of a large price decrease, as has been happening recently (prices are down over 25% since 26 May 2025), since regular investors would know that the burnrate in the following calendar month would decrease the supply and thus support the price of DOT going forward.
It would also ensure that the funds spent by the Treasury are at least somewhat stable in value - ensuring that the funds have a stable purchasing power, and not consistently falling over the long-run, as they have been since the end of 2021. There really is no point in having more and more DOT in the Treasury, when the value of each individual DOT is down over 90% from its ATH in 2021.
Lastly, while some might view this 2x rule as radical, it's fair to say that the rule vis a vis the US dollar is actually quite tame - especially considering that the US dollar has been depreciating in value recently (down over 10% YTD against the Euro, around 9% against the GBP, around 7.6% against the JPY, etc.) and that the economic team of the President of the United States is openly favoring further depreciation - which will only accelerate once Trump has the opportunity to nominate a new Federal Reserve Chairman early next year. Thus, this 2x burn rule tied to the USD would give more assurances to foreign investors, who might also be worried about the loss in value of the USD.
What are your thoughts on this?
Would anyone want to help me write and submit such a proposal?