As a Shanghai local, I have deeply felt the obsession of the recent years' local elites with the "old money style". Brunello Cucinelli alone has three stores in Shanghai, while Loro Piana has seven. One of the most popular menswear categories on Douyin is the high replicas of BC and LP. In the summer, if you take a stroll around Xuhui Riverside, who doesn't have a BC cashmere T-shirt? And with a pair of Lindberg 9704 glasses, it’s hard to gauge the depth at first glance. Five years ago, when I was working in an investment bank, I also liked to buy clothes. The brands I favored back then were Brioni, The Row, and Ralph Lauren Purple Label. At that time, it seemed there was no concept of "old money style"; it was purely because I felt the designs had quality, could transcend cycles, and even looked better over time. I have a Ralph Lauren Purple Label down jacket that I've worn for 7 years, and it still doesn’t look outdated. When I go out to meet a potential partner at TRB, it helps me skip over quite a few questions. Having been a crypto investor for over two years, I have witnessed the rise and fall of many public chains, and NEAR has left a deep impression on me. Established over five years ago, it has been around longer than my career in finance and is a true old money in the public chain space. In the past, when evaluating the fundamentals of Infra projects, the economic model, especially the inflation level, was one of the important factors. This is because, under the objective fact that token utility cannot enhance effectiveness, it directly influences the supply-demand relationship by adjusting the circulation level. After three cycles of iteration, NEAR has achieved an efficient network architecture—8 shards running stably, with performance well above expectations and operating costs significantly lower than anticipated. The network's reliance on high inflation incentives has clearly decreased. Thanks to excellent optimization of system resource scheduling, NEAR's average transaction cost is very low, with the supply destroyed in 2024 accounting for only about 0.1% of the total. Against this backdrop, NEAR recently initiated a proposal to reduce inflation, which is crucial for optimizing the economic model of the NEAR token. Core of the proposal: - Decrease in inflation rate: Lower the maximum annual inflation rate of $NEAR from 5% to 2.5%. - Reduce net issuance speed: If this inflation reduction proposal is approved, it will significantly slow down the net issuance speed of $NEAR, making its supply-demand relationship more balanced. - Entering deflation: With the increase in transaction fee burns brought by future AI Agents and NEAR Intents, $NEAR is expected to gradually move into the deflationary zone, further enhancing its scarcity and providing stronger support for its price. Potential impacts: The most imaginative aspect of this proposal is the optimization of the price logic of $NEAR: - The economic model becomes healthier and more sustainable due to the slowed inflation dilution. - It helps narrate a new cycle for NEAR: AI, NEAR Intents, and Chain Abstract set up practical scenarios for deflationary space. - It promotes the use of $NEAR through on-chain activity rather than relying on inflation incentives for locking. At the same time, it releases DeFi liquidity and improves capital utilization efficiency. The staking model of $NEAR will also be restructured to encourage long-term staking behavior: in the future, it will support a floating APY of 4%-11%, linked to the staking duration, optimizing returns for long-term participants. Discussion address: Voting link: Timelessness is the unique charm of old money, and NEAR has also gained institutional favor due to its strong vitality. Not only do many of my friends' funds hold $NEAR, but it is also the second-largest holding in Grayscale's Decentralized AI Fund, accounting for over 25% of the holdings. If you are a holder of $NEAR, you might consider voting to witness the arrival of a new phase for NEAR.