Web3 Foundation (W3F) researchers have introduced a new Request for Comments (RFC)-0092 proposal to reduce the unbonding periods for staked tokens on Polkadot.

The new mechanism proposes reducing the unstaking process from 28 days to as little as two days — geared toward improving user convenience and competitiveness without compromising security.

“The new mechanism leads to a significantly reduced unbonding time on average, by queuing up new unbonding requests and scaling their unbonding duration relative to the size of the queue.”

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Proposed unstaking overhaul

The W3F-proposed mechanism involves the unbonding system that queues unbonding requests and scales the duration based on the queue size. 

If the proposal passes to the voting phase and is approved, the new system will allow the minimum duration to be reduced to just two days when the queue is empty. 

The system would prevent unbonding time from exceeding the current fixed period of 28 days and provide users with a faster and more efficient unstaking process. 

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Driving factors 

The driving factor behind the introduction of RFC-0092 is that Polkadot has one of the longest unbonding periods among proof-of-stake (PoS) protocols.

Despite the high annual percentage yield (APY) offered by staking on Polkadot, the long unstaking process can potentially deter participation as users opt for faster alternatives.

“The current length of the unbonding period imposes significant costs for any entity that even wants to perform basic tasks such as a reorganization / consolidation of their stashes, or updating their private key infrastructure. It also limits participation of users that have a large preference for liquidity.”

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Simulation analysis

The proposed unbonding queue mechanism was accompanied by an empirical analysis to simulate the new system’s potential.

The simulation indicated that the average unbonding time would drop to approximately 2.67 days while the system remains sensitive to large unbonding events without exceeding the 28-day upper limit.

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