NEAR governance has approved a plan to eliminate the network’s developer gas rebate, a protocol-level payment that currently sends part of certain smart-contract execution fees to contract accounts. The change is implemented in NEAR’s main codebase, but it was not active on mainnet when Crypto Recon checked on August 11, 2026.
That distinction matters. Developers should prepare for a future loss of rebate income, but ordinary users should not read the governance vote as an immediate change to transaction fees.
What HSP-027 changes
House of Stake proposal HSP-027 reduces the protocol parameter known as burnt_gas_reward from 30% to 0%.
Under NEAR’s currently documented gas mechanism, the reward does not apply to every component of a transaction fee. It applies to gas burned during function-call execution; base fees are already fully burned. The eligible execution amount is multiplied by the rebate parameter, and the resulting reward goes to the contract account.
Once the approved change activates, that automatic contract reward becomes zero. Eligible execution fees that previously funded the rebate will instead follow the protocol’s burn mechanism.
The direct impact therefore falls on contract owners and application operators that receive this protocol-generated revenue. Teams that include the rebate in operating forecasts should model that income as ending when the upgrade activates.
What does not change
HSP-027 describes a fee-allocation change, not a redesign of how users buy gas or how contracts execute. The proposal says it does not change:
- gas pricing or user fee calculations;
- transaction execution or contract interfaces;
- validator rewards or staking economics; or
- existing contracts’ ability to keep operating without migration.
Those are proposal and implementation expectations, not post-activation observations. The upgrade still needs to pass through the release, validator, and mainnet activation process before its live behavior can be evaluated.
The code exists, but mainnet was still on the old setting
The implementation path is visible in nearcore runtime configuration 87. That file changes burnt_gas_reward from 3/10 to 0/1 and labels the change as removing gas rewards paid back to contract accounts.
Crypto Recon also queried NEAR’s final-state mainnet protocol configuration at 02:56 UTC on August 11. The network reported protocol version 86 and a burnt_gas_reward value of 3/10. In plain English, the 30% rebate was still active at the checked block.
This is stronger evidence than treating ratification as activation: the future configuration contains the approved change, while the live network still reports the current parameter.
When will the rebate end?
House of Stake’s ratification update targeted protocol update v2.14 for August 2026, subject to engineering readiness, testnet validation, validator upgrades, and coordination. Crypto Recon did not find a published v2.14 release candidate, validator voting schedule, or exact activation date during this review.
August is therefore a conditional target, not a deadline readers should treat as guaranteed. The practical activation signal will be a mainnet protocol upgrade that changes the live parameter from 3/10 to zero.
What developers should do now
Contract owners can take three practical steps without assuming a date:
- Identify whether their contract accounts currently receive gas rewards.
- Separate that protocol rebate from user fees, application revenue, and other income in internal reporting.
- Monitor official nearcore releases and mainnet protocol status before treating the removal as active.
No contract migration is expected solely because of this change. The economic effect is narrower: contract accounts lose an automatic protocol revenue stream once version 87’s configuration reaches mainnet.
The proposal argues that redirecting the rebate strengthens token-value accrual. That is the proposal authors’ economic rationale, not a guaranteed price or market outcome. The verifiable change is simpler: after activation, the rebate rate becomes zero and more eligible execution fees are burned instead of being paid to contract accounts.
Informational content only; not financial, legal, or tax advice.