[AIP-126][Discussion] Priority fee

[grao1991]

AIP Discussion

There is currently no mechanism in the Aptos protocol that incentivizes validators to prioritize higher-priced transactions. As a result, no built-in priority fee market exists, which encourages the emergence of informal or "black market" mechanisms for transaction ordering. This becomes increasingly problematic as trading use cases grow, particularly those involving arbitrage opportunities, where fair and open competition over ordering is essential.

This proposal introduces a simple and incentive-compatible mechanism for priority fees. We modify the current gas fee behavior so that only the first 90 Octas per gas unit (GU) are burned. Any excess over that threshold is paid directly to the validator who proposes the block containing the transaction. This allows users to compete for inclusion and ordering by paying validators directly, in a transparent and protocol-native way.

Read more about it here: https://github.com/aptos-foundation/AIPs/blob/main/aips/aip-126.md