Two researchers at Web3 Foundation, the organization behind Polkadot, have proposed reducing the unbonding time for staked DOT tokens and are seeking feedback on this initiative.

Alistair Stewart, Web3 Foundation's head of research, and Jonas Gehrlein submitted the proposal to the Polkadot Fellowship committee on June 19.

The proposal introduces a more flexible unbonding mechanism for Polkadot's DOT token and its canary network, Kusama's KSM token. It aims to enhance user experience while maintaining network security. A key aspect of the proposal is reducing the minimum unbonding period from 28 days to 2 days under specific conditions, as outlined in the GitHub document:

"New unbonding requests would be processed with a minimum period of 2 days when the queue is relatively empty, compared to the conventional 28 days if the total stake requests exceed a certain threshold."

The researchers clarified that the duration for unbonding will scale depending on the number of requests in the queue but will not exceed the current maximum of 28 days.

If approved, the proposal will expedite the unbonding process while ensuring Polkadot's ability to withdraw tokens backing malicious validators. This adjustment means tokens will not be immediately available but will become accessible much faster.

The proposal focuses specifically on staking locks, leaving other locks such as governance locks unchanged. The researchers also suggested trialing this model on Kusama before implementing it on Polkadot.

Community feedback has highlighted concerns about potential centralization risks associated with the proposal. Lurpis Wang, cofounder of the Liquid Staking protocol Bifrost on Polkadot, expressed concerns that reducing the unbonding time may not address underlying centralization issues related to liquid staking protocols.

Similarly, Gregus Jakub, cofounder of Hydration, echoed concerns about centralization risks, noting:

"Liquid staking hasn’t proliferated on Polkadot more than elsewhere, and current centralization levels are already significant."

In response, Gehrlein emphasized that the proposal aims to enhance user experience without undermining the role of liquid staking providers, stating:

"This proposal is intended to improve the user experience for those staking directly on the Relay Chain, rather than undercutting liquid staking providers."