Avalanche Activates Helicon Staking Overhaul
Avalanche has activated Helicon, its most substantial staking overhaul to date. The upgrade, which went live on Mainnet on September 22 at 11:00 AM ET, combines six community proposals into a single release of AvalancheGo v1.15.0.
The changes include a significant reduction in the minimum lock-up period for validators, from 336 hours (14 days) to just 48 hours (two days). Auto-renewed staking is also introduced, eliminating the need for manual re-staking once a staking period expires.
The upgrade also adjusts the uptime requirement for validator rewards, increasing it to 90% for new staking periods. Additionally, a reward curve recalibration, known as ACP-285, will roll out gradually over 90 days, rewarding longer staking commitments more generously while tightening payouts for short-duration stakers.
The Helicon upgrade is expected to reduce AVAX inflation by 0.5 to 1 percentage point. It also introduces Continuous Execution, decoupling the consensus pathway from transaction execution, and makes the minimum C-Chain gas price dynamic, adjusting based on network conditions.